The following is the text of the statement issued by Roadstone Dublin Ltd:
Roadstone is determined, by way of this statement, to reaffirm yet again to The Irish Times its position in relation to repeated spurious allegations made by a small group attempting to damage the reputation of a highly professional and ethically managed company.
There have been attempts to imply that political influence was used by Roadstone in the purchase of the lands at Blessington in 1992. There is absolutely no foundation to this whatsoever.
The lands were purchased from the Department of Energy. The Minister for Energy who sanctioned the sale in 1992 was Bobby Molloy TD. At all times during the purchase process, Roadstone acted in a totally ethical and professional manner and paid the full market price for the lands.
The apparent attempt to create a connection between Roadstone's purchase of the lands and CRH's former chairman, Des Traynor, is a spurious and damaging attempt to imply political interference. As a non-executive chairman of Roadstone's parent company, Mr Traynor had no role whatsoever in identifying or negotiating any Roadstone purchases. All aspects of this purchase were handled by executives of Roadstone.
In applying for planning permission and subsequent to the granting of permission to extract from these lands, Roadstone has strictly adhered to the stipulations of the planning process and continues to do so.
Due to an administrative oversight, some 70 acres of land purchased by the company during the 1970s were not subsequently registered in Roadstone's name. The Chief State Solicitor's Office has confirmed that these lands are in the full ownership of the company and the lands have been re-registered. Suggestions that there is anything untoward here are intended to damage the reputation of a highly professional company.
CRH subsidiaries purchase goods from thousands of suppliers annually. It is not practical nor possible to establish the ownership or possible linkages of all these companies.
Irish Industrial Explosives, which was a subsidiary of Kemek Ltd, an associate company of CRH, employed the services of Geo Engineering during the period January 1983 to March 1984. The total amount invoiced and paid for the work completed over that period was £18,150. The payments were part of a normal business transaction for geo-technical consultancy and surveying services carried out during this period.