Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I thank all the speakers who have contributed to the debate. I thank the Labour Party and Sinn Féin for their support. I also thank Deputy Seán Fleming, the Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, and the members of that committee for their assistance in teasing out these issues over the past year. It has been ploughing a lonely furrow for the last year to ascertain what has been going on in the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, particularly in terms of property transactions. Having visited the area with the Oireachtas committee, one would be impressed with the community development, education, social regeneration and some of the programmes that are helping young people to find employment. Those were included in the mission statement under the legislation in 1997 but regrettably it was hi-jacked by people for personal gain.

The new chairman of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, Professor Niamh Brennan, addressed the committee last week and answered some of the questions. One could see she is having great difficulty getting to the root causes of some of the problems. She will have to come back to the committee in due course and report on the 2009 accounts and indicate to us the contents of two important reports she has commissioned in corporate governance and financial probity. Those reports will assist the committee in concluding its work satisfactorily and help to ensure that we do our job properly in this House - representing the taxpayer and securing accountability for money that has been allocated and spent.

The Bill Fine Gael is putting forward is a small token in terms of honesty, transparency and accountability. Since 1922, the mechanism has existed for us to examine, through the Comptroller and Auditor General Act and the Committee of Public Accounts, what has gone on in each Government Department and agency under its control. This agency for some reason, perhaps deliberately, was given a commercial remit and was left out of the scope of the Comptroller and Auditor General. I do not know why that was done but when we see what happened in the past 12 years, we can understand that it may have been a deliberate attempt to obfuscate accountability and responsibility for financial probity.

In issues related to finance, property development and corporate governance, this organisation has not been run properly. Fine Gael seeks to put that right with this Bill and ensure it will not happen again in that or any other organisation. If it is good enough for the State to have the IDA or Shannon Development as property holding companies, subject to the Comptroller and Auditor General, what is wrong with putting the Dublin Docklands Development Authority under the same control?

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government had the opportunity to put himself at a considerable distance politically and otherwise from the people who caused this problem and who were engaged in the financial skullduggery that has gone on in the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, who had common directorships in organisations throughout the city and even had the assistance of Anglo Irish Bank to assist them to fund their pet projects. I outlined in detail yesterday some of the trickery used by these individuals. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government knows well those people are a perfect example of what has been wrong with this country in the last number of years. They are a perfect example of what has brought us to this day where there will be such a difficult budget this afternoon. We are here because of their irresponsible practices, lack of accountability and inadequate policy decisions that were made contrary to the interests of the taxpayer.

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