Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In the High Court yesterday, Mr. Justice Gilligan delivered his judgment in the case of Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited v. Dublin Waterworld Limited. Dublin Waterworld Limited operates the national aquatic centre under a 30 year lease from Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited. Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited took legal proceedings against Dublin Waterworld Limited for forfeiting of the lease and failure to comply with obligations under the lease which include the failure to pay rent, insurance and provide audited accounts. When the proceedings commenced it emerged that Dublin Waterworld Limited had transferred the beneficial ownership of the lease to Mr. Pat Mulcair. Deputy Rabbitte is correct in saying that was done secretly, unknown to Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited. It was transferred by Dublin Waterworld Limited to Mr. Pat Mulcair. Such a transfer of ownership should only have taken place with the agreement of Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited. That was entirely incorrect. Dublin Waterworld Limited sought relief against that forfeiture.

In his judgment, Mr. Justice Gilligan held with Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited on all counts. He found that Dublin Waterworld Limited had wilfully declined to honour its obligations pursuant to the lease of 30 April 2003. Accordingly, he declined to grant relief against the forfeiture and the case will come before Mr. Justice Gilligan again next week for finalising of the order. Therefore, I do not wish to make any comment on that.

The defendants will then have 21 days within which they may lodge an appeal to the Supreme Court. Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited's position is that the national aquatic centre will remain open to the public. Contingency plans to ensure the centre continues to operate as normal have been prepared in the event that the appeal is not taken. Hopefully we can move on. The proceedings had the strong support of the Minister and the entire Government throughout the last difficult period.

Our hope is that the centre will remain open. It will have to find a new way of functioning. My preference is that would be done by Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited. That is an option but perhaps other options may have to be looked at. The national aquatic centre is a world class centre as defined by everybody who has used it in European and international competitions and as declared by those who used in during the Special Olympics. It was built in record time to provide a state-of-the-art facility for a state-of-the-art Special Olympics competition of which we should all be proud.

See this speech in context