Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

It tells many tales about what went wrong in recent years.

The final stop is at The Point and there to greet us on the journey we took was Harry Crosbie, who was grinning from ear to ear. One could see the dollar signs in front of his eyes and in fairness I wish him well. He has been a strong advocate of development in Dublin's docklands over the past 20 to 25 years. He put his money where his mouth was and is, and fair dues to him. I wish him well and I believe he will be more successful with what is happening there at present.

It is worth dwelling on what worked well and what worked badly for the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. It worked well under Ruairí Quinn's vision of a stand-alone State authority that would assist in the development of a run-down area. To quite a degree, the planning powers have worked well. Where it went wrong was in corporate governance. I do not see anything wrong with appointing as directors people who bring with them their wealth of experience in the financial or banking sector. However, something seemed to go wrong when conflicts of interest arose on the board of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. In a country as small as Ireland, there are conflicts of interest every day of the week. The trick is to declare them and put them on the table. If there is a conflict of interest or a perceived conflict of interest one leaves the room. I am not convinced that happened at the board meetings of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.

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