Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State at the Department of Transport for coming to the House to deal with these matters. I am disappointed, however, that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has neither attended here whenever this matter has been raised, nor in his constituency when local meetings have been held over recent months. It shows a certain contempt for the people who elected him but I suppose I would say that.

There is an urgent need for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to at the minimum postpone the section 25 process for the Dublin Docklands Development Authority's proposed planning scheme for the Poolbeg peninsula. It has raised ethical concerns about banks, commercial interests, developers and the authority and the complex web of relationships between these individuals and corporate entities. This is a significant scheme which will have a profound effect on people not only in the Sandymount and Ringsend area but in the city. There has been no provision for transport and other infrastructure to support this massive scheme.

The premise of the scheme is worrying. It will allow the Dublin Docklands Development Authority become its own planning authority for a vast tract of land which is an important public amenity. Anyone who lives in Dublin city probably uses or has used it. It is also an area of significant flooding that affects the canal and the Dodder, Tolka and Liffey rivers. This is not merely a local issue but is very much a city-wide one. It is also a matter of national concern, for a number of reasons that I will outline.

Three fiascos are currently connected to the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. One is the Becbay investment scheme in the Irish Glass Bottle site, a greatly questionable endeavour involving a number of people. The CEO of the authority until last month, Mr. Paul Moloney, stated that no interest has been paid since last June on the loan of almost €300 million put forward to purchase the IGB site. This raises a very significant question with regard to the solvency of the DDDA and Deputy Phil Hogan raised the matter at the relevant Oireachtas committee. There are major concerns among the public and they have not been answered by the Minister. The matter has not been dealt with and we have not had any meaningful clarification.

Let us bear in mind that the Dublin Docklands Development Authority was established by my very fine constituency colleague, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, the former Minister of Finance in the Fine Gael-led Rainbow Government of 1994-97. It was done as part of a rejuvenation scheme for the city centre, based on commercial intent but also to offer a very important social dimension for the area. What has been happening in the DDDA over the past number of years has deviated so far from those original objectives that serious questions must now be answered.

There is the issue of the newly appointed chairman of the DDDA, Mr. McCaughey, who was appointed by the same Minister, Deputy John Gormley. Mr. McCaughey was forced to resign in recent days as a result of what can only be described as very questionable behaviour with regard to payment of taxes. This raises significant questions over the judgment of the Minister and how much of a handle he really has on what is going on in the various authorities under his Ministry, particularly the DDDA.

There is the very important issue of the links between the recently nationalised Anglo Irish Bank and the DDDA. Two directors of the authority were directors of Anglo Irish Bank at the time of the Becbay deal, a very serious conflict of interest. According to the DDDA's last annual report, it paid €964,648 to companies that had direct links with three of its directors. One such was Arup Consulting, one of whose directors was a member of the DDDA board; another relates to PricewaterhouseCoopers; and we are very much aware of the Anglo Irish Bank connections. These are major questions of public interest and the Minister, Deputy Gormley, must get to the bottom of them before he gives any sanction to, or stands over this project going ahead.

In any case, this project is not viable because it is proposed on the basis of completely flawed planning grounds——

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