John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

While the Dublin Docklands Development Authority issue has been much discussed in recent times both in the House, as well as through the wider media, I am happy to clarify the matter for the Deputy.

As Minister and as a resident myself of the Dublin docklands area, I am committed to ensuring the authority's activities are compliant with its statutory requirements and its decisions are transparent and above board. I have taken the initiative in appointing Professor Niamh Brennan, an acknowledged expert in corporate governance, as chair of the authority. I also asked her to review the authority's corporate governance, reflecting the updated code of practice for State bodies published in May 2009.

On foot of this request, the board of the authority commissioned two independent reports to inform this review. The first was by Declan Brassil and Associates, chartered planning consultants, entitled, Review of DDDA Planning Structures and Functions, which examined the forward planning and development management procedures in the authority. The second supporting report, Report on Finance Functions — Particularly Procurement and Payroll, prepared by Ray King and Associates, incorporated public accountants and registered auditors, assessed financial control procedures, procurement and recruitment practices.

My Department received the authority's report on corporate governance, together with these two supporting independent consultants' reports, on 1 February 2010. They comprehensively examine how the authority's procedures and practices compare to best practice and the authority's board and chair have already addressed many of the issues identified in the reports, with a view to ensuring the current planning administration and financial management practices at the authority are robust.

I have repeatedly stated that I will publish these reports. I intend, however, to do it the right way, taking account of the advice of the Attorney General. I have been advised that before publication, the reports' findings should be put to the relevant former and current board members and DDDA employees to afford them an opportunity to comment. This consultation is already under way, and the executive board of the authority has committed to reporting back to me in late April. On foot of this, I will conclude my consideration of the reports, in consultation with the Attorney General, and report back to the Government.

It is not in anyone's interest to rush to hasty decisions which could jeopardise the reforms and measures that may need to be taken on foot of the reports. It is important that, as a responsible public representative, I follow the course of natural justice and allow potentially affected persons a right to be heard on these reports. In this regard, I am also mindful of the need to ultimately protect the taxpayer against any possible legal action arising.

A separate report from the authority regarding its participation in the Becbay joint venture and future decisions on the development of the former Irish Glass Bottle site was received in my Department on 5 February. I appointed independent financial advisers to assess the report, in consultation with my Department and the Department of Finance. It will be considered in the broader context of the corporate governance review of the authority.

Allegations were made across the floor of the House and outside it about the explosive nature of these reports and that they had some sort of political implications. The Deputy will see I was correct when I said these allegations were completely unfounded. Fine Gael has already published these reports and it is clear to most they do not contain explosive political material.

I want to ensure we get to the bottom of what occurred in the authority. The reports examined what happened. We need to find out why it happened and my commitment to the House is that I will do so in a thorough way. From the actions I have taken to date, I have done everything possible to ensure we have a properly functioning Dublin docklands.

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