Proposals for a new national marine headquarters in Clonakilty, Co Cork, were mired in controversy yesterday. Staff at Bord Iascaigh Mhara, the fisheries board, said not one of them had applied to move from Dún Laoghaire under the decentralisation plans.
And the chairwoman of BIM rejected a Labour Party claim that she had a potential conflict of interest.
Chairwoman Rose McHugh is deputy chief executive of a company with offices in a technology park which is also housing temporary headquarters of the Department of the Marine in Clonakilty.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern opened the temporary headquarters in the West Cork Technology Park yesterday when he also announced the winning scheme for development of a purpose-built national marine headquarters.
Labour Party marine spokesman Tommy Broughan claimed meanwhile that the technology park was marketed by the SWS Group. Ms McHugh's appointment by Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey a week ago represented a serious potential conflict of interest, he said, referring to the business and property management functions and her company website.
However, speaking to The Irish Times, Ms McHugh, head of SWS Group's corporate affairs division, said her company had no beneficial interest in the park, and Mr Broughan's earlier claims about ownership were "totally without foundation". Her company was based in part of the building, but it is owned by the Fleming Group, she said.
Procurement of the temporary premises was carried out by the Office of Public Works (OPW), she said, and the permanent location for the new marine headquarters was on a "greenfield site" which her company also has no links with.
A spokesman for Mr Dempsey said the OPW had procured the temporary headquarters, and there was "no BIM involvement whatsoever". The new national marine HQ was also dealt with by the OPW through an open tender which selected Michael McNamara and Company as preferred bidder, he added.
An OPW spokesman said the temporary premises were sourced on the basis of value for money and not by open tender.
Some 50 of 120 marine department staff will move to the temporary premises initially, but no BIM staff have applied to relocate to west Cork.
Siptu trade union branch organiser Owen Reidy said 93 workers in DúLaoghaire were public servants rather than civil servants. An attempt was being made to bully the workers into moving to Co Cork, he claimed.