Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. We received a statement from a previous chair, Professor Niamh Brennan, on this matter. Mr. Clegg mentioned the special report by the Comptroller and Auditor General regarding No. 77. Professor Brennan, to quote one section in summary of what she had to say about her term as chair from 2009 to 2012, wrote:

I think it is a shame that the Dublin Docklands redevelopment project foundered on a single, high-risk, Irish Glass Bottle site throw of the dice, bringing the Docklands development authority from a cash-rich, successful organisation to the brink of insolvency and irretrievable reputational damage. Irish taxpayers and the local Docklands community deserve better.

I suppose she is not quite accurate once we go through No. 77, the special report and what Mr. Clegg has said himself in his own report, which he gave to us earlier. It is clear that there is a total legacy of failure in the operation of the docklands authority from 1997 until roughly 2009. There were issues of governance, financial matters and internal systems of financial control. The board itself was not being informed about decisions that were taken; there was seemingly an internal cabal there. There was a conflict of interests, with the CEO of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority going to Anglo Irish Bank straight from the docklands.

It seems as though the entire planning process was compromised by the development requirements with the result that, as Mr. Clegg says in his final remarks, the authority has now stabilised from a negative position of nearly €200 million to a positive position. Of course, the glass bottle site was the last throw of the dice and was a total disaster. Could Mr. Clegg comment on that in the first instance? What is his opinion on what happened with his predecessors in the job for a start, and on the operation of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority over a ten-year period or a little longer? Does he agree with the summation I have given of the operation of the docklands?