Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

I commend Deputy Hogan on bringing forward this Bill. It is very worthwhile to ensure that the Comptroller and Auditor General has the powers to inspect the books and records of the DDDA and to investigate some of the wrongdoing and corruption alleged to have taken place there.

I commend the good work of the DDDA since 1997. It has rejuvenated the docklands which were a no-go area. It is doing much good work within the community. A cloud now hangs over the authority because of the Irish Glass Bottle Company site deal. Many questions remain unanswered. Deputy Hogan has been investigating this for the best part of one year but has been frustrated by the little information he has received under the Freedom of Information Act. Some of the information has been blacked out. That needs to be examined. There is a lack of accountability and the board has hidden behind a veil of secrecy, like another organisation which has also been investigated.

We welcome the new chairman of the DDDA who has been in place since March 2009. She had a hard job in trying to put together the 2008 accounts because she was not in post then, and she has a hard job ahead of her. The DDDA reported a loss of €213 million in 2008 which was the first time it was so financially badly hit. A total of €186 million of this loss is attributed to its agreement to purchase the Irish Glass Bottle Company site. Questions remain to be answered as to why it took that risk and went into a joint venture with other developers when it did not need to do so. We need to know whether there was any connection between the directors and those who benefited from the sale of this site and the DDDA. There was a serious conflict of interest when directors of the authority were receiving loans from Anglo Irish Bank and were reckless with the money. The directors must be accountable. The Government should pursue these people and hold them responsible for their bad decision-making.

The Irish Glass Bottle Company site was purchased at the height of the boom for €412 million, which is equivalent to €17.2 million per acre, an obscene sum of money to pay. The value of the site has dropped dramatically and it is worth only €50 million now. The taxpayer will have to pick up the tab to ensure that the authority continues in business while its directors have not been held accountable and nobody is taking full responsibility. Successive Ministers for the Environment were allegedly responsible for the DDDA but were making appointments which breached good corporate governance practice. They need to be made answerable and say why they made those decisions and what level of scrutiny took place before those appointments were made. The Minister and his predecessors must answer questions about the borrowing limit for the authority which increased specifically for the purchase of the Irish Glass Bottle Company site.

Why was the €43 million loan from the DDDA for the purchase of this site interest-free and unsecured? These are the kind of questions that must be answered. That it has been written off in the 2008 accounts means that it was given with very bad judgment. People must be held responsible for that. The DDDA has done much good work in the area. Tax breaks played a major part in the development of the Irish Financial Services Centre and the rejuvenation process. There is a Luas line there and the new Samuel Beckett Bridge is to be opened but questions about some of the shady deals done hang over all this good work .

There is a fear that there is cronyism in the way the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is appointing directors to the authority. That can only be stopped by open and transparent scrutiny of appointment of directors by the relevant Oireachtas committee where they are probed and answer serious questions to ensure that they are capable of doing the job and have the proper qualification to do so. The new chairman has a good reputation and will no doubt get to the bottom of the problems that have arisen. The Comptroller and Auditor General plays a crucial role in the investigation of various Departments and agencies such as FÁS, gets to the root of the problem and is not afraid to state who was at fault. That needs to happen.

We know the authority is in dire straits and that it is cutting costs in a way that is affecting community events and activities within the docklands at present. It is the ordinary people who are paying the price because of the recklessness by various directors of the authority. As we know, the authority is moving back from its new headquarters to its old headquarters. There have been bad management decisions and, specifically, Anglo Irish Bank officials have made many mistakes. The real issue is that there is no adequate regulation and no proper governance or accountability of Government in regard to this body. My party recently moved a Private Members' motion in regard to making CIE more accountable and ensuring that parliamentary questions are answered. That needs to happen with regard to the docklands authority. There is no political accountability and no one accepts responsibility, which is the same old story with regard to this Government.

The docklands authority has done much good work. However, it is a quango and should be under the authority of the Dublin City Council which would have much tighter control and give less opportunity for a situation like this to happen again, which we clearly do not want. I hope the Minister will support Deputy Hogan's Bill, which aims to get the Comptroller and Auditor General to immediately investigate the wrongdoing in this authority.

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