Mr. Lar Bradshaw:

Yes, that is correct. He informed me of that and that he could effectively set up a subsidiary company – I think he had already done that – to buy out the freehold, in other words what the Dublin Port Company owned, for a multiple of what effectively was a peppercorn rent that the Dublin Port Company was charging at the time. I assume it was charging that peppercorn rent when South Wharf had hundreds of employees down there producing glass.

He also told me during the call that as long as he produced three bottles a day he would not be in breach of his lease and therefore he could buy the freehold. When he asked whether I would be prepared to mediate I responded that I would be happy to help if both sides wanted me to do it, but that I did not believe it was right for him to do it. I think the expression I used to him on the call was something like – please do not take it literally, I was speaking metaphorically – that he effectively had a bullet in a gun and he was pointing it at the State, that is, the threat that he could exercise this legal loophole. I told him that I did not think it was right for him to do that, and what was more, that I felt that my view would be shared by the business community at large. I said that I would be prepared to mediate but only if he put the gun down, metaphorically speaking of course.

He replied that he had a duty to his shareholders to maximise the value of South Wharf. I replied that I would not be willing to mediate unless he desisted from the threat because I really did not believe he would exercise that threat. The conversation ended. I cannot swear to it but I think there was a board meeting because for some reason I have it in my head that he actually rang me on my telephone number in the docklands. At the earliest opportunity I informed the board fully of the phone call. Sometime later – I think it was maybe about a month later – I received another call from Paul Coulson. This time he had a different suggestion. He proposed that the authority should purchase the Dublin Port & Docks Board interest in the site and then we could sit down together and negotiate a deal because trust had broken down.

There were legal cases flying back and forth and he reiterated the trust was gone and so on. I told him that I thought the board of the authority would be happy to consider such an approach but I would only be prepared to discuss it with the board after he had given me his word that he was dropping his threat of using this legal loophole. Let me just say we had a fairly heated discussion.