Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

——decided to award a 30 year lease in the property worth €62 million to Dublin Waterworld Limited. This turned out to be a shelf company with a share capital of €127 and no assets. When the judge was confronted with this he said that to transfer a lease to a company with a share capital of €127 and no assets was truly astonishing. Dublin Waterworld Limited then secretly transferred the lease to a Fianna Fáil businessman, Pat Mulcair, in what was described in court as a "tax driven deal" that allowed him €2.8 million in capital allowances per annum.

According to the judge Dublin Waterworld Limited only assigned its right to the lease of the aquatic centre to Mr. Mulcair on 30 April 2003 but instead of Mr. Mulcair taking up the lease an elaborate set of agreements were put together to protect Mr. Mulcair's claim for capital allowances. When one looks at the National Sports Campus Development Authority Bill 2006 which is before the House one will find the most extraordinary provision in section 38 which provides that the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism shall have, and be deemed always to have had, power to hold and transfer shares in Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited and the establishment of the company shall be, and be deemed always to have been, as valid and effectual as if they had that power at the time of its establishment.

The only conclusion one can arrive at from that is that there is serious doubt as to the legal capacity of these three members of Government without statutory authority to cause a private company to be formed and to enter contracts relating to the acquisition, holding and transfer of shares. Will the Taoiseach tell the House what is going on? What kind of legislation, six years later, seeks to confer retrospective authority on the Taoiseach to make this kind of deal? How could he and his two fellow directors decide to assign this to a shelf company with a share capital of only €127 and no assets to administer this? The company secretly transferred its right in the lease to a businessman, well known to attend the Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway races, to facilitate him in €2.7 million capital allowances per annum, a lease that was revoked yesterday or taken back as a result of the judgment of the High Court.

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