Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 26 June 2013

Public Accounts Committee

Special Report No. 77 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Dublin Docklands Development Authority (Resumed)

5:10 pm

Photo of Gerald NashGerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Mr. Bradshaw has tried to comprehensively address the issue of perceived conflicts of interest. Points 3.50 and 3.51 in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General refer to the decision made by Mr. Bradshaw and his colleagues on the board to attempt to address the potential conflict of interest in the funding of the project.

Mr. Bradshaw is on record in terms of the actions he took to address that. Paragraph 3.51 refers to subsequent actions Mr. Bradshaw has taken in the board's name. It states: "While both directors of Anglo Irish Bank withdrew from the meetings while the proposed terms of the loan offer from Anglo Irish Bank were discussed, when the guarantee agreements were eventually signed with the Bank in November 2006 and January 2007, the Chairman of the Board [Mr. Bradshaw] and then non-executive director of Anglo Irish Bank signed the agreements on behalf of the Authority." Mr. Bradshaw was concerned that there may be the appearance of a conflict of interest, as it applied to paragraph 3.50, which was the meeting of 2 November 2006. When we get to later in November 2006 and January 2007 and the issue of guarantees, Mr. Bradshaw does not accept that there was a conflict of interest or it is not something that concerns him, to the point that he was happy to sign the agreements on behalf of the authority. Could he elaborate on that, please?