Moriarty tribunal: The Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH) subsidiary which bought 145 acres at Glen Ding Wood, Co Wicklow, from the State for £1.25 million in 1990, has to date extracted less than 500,000 tonnes of sand and gravel from the site, the tribunal heard.
CRH executive Donal Dempsey returned to the witness box yesterday to respond to evidence given by minerals expert John Barnett on Tuesday. Mr Barnett had said five million tonnes of material had been withdrawn.
However, Mr Dempsey told Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal, that five million tonnes had not been taken out of the new land.
He said CRH subsidiary Roadstone Dublin Ltd had planning permission for 15 acres of the site and had taken "less than half a million tonnes" from the former State lands.
Mr Dempsey, who is now chief executive of a European CRH group company, was at the time of the purchase financial director of Roadstone Dublin. He agreed with Mr Healy that the material extracted included some for which Roadstone "got in trouble" over planning issues. The land was sold without permission for sand and gravel extraction.
Mr Healy asked him about an environmental impact statement that formed part of one of Roadstone's applications to develop 80 acres in the site. The statement referred to withdrawing not more than 800,000 tonnes per year, for 15 years. On one reading this could indicate a total for the 80 acres of 12 million tonnes, Mr Healy said. At the time of the sale in 1990, Mr Barnett told the Department of Energy he estimated that the 85 acres of the site contained 6.7 million tonnes of usable material.
However Mr Dempsey said the 800,000 figure was designed to give Roadstone flexibility. It did not mean the company believed the 80 acres contained 12 million tonnes of sand and gravel. The tribunal resumes today with a new witness.