Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour)

As a former member of a Dublin local authority during the 1980s and 1990s, I welcome the Mahon tribunal report and its findings. The report has taken a decade and a half to complete but I believe it was worth the length of time and the cost involved.

I will refer to several modules of the tribunal. First, I refer to Cloghran and Cargobridge modules. Cloghran is located on the boundary of my constituency, Dublin North-East, close to Dublin Airport. In 1992, there was a campaign to rezone lands at Cloghran for the Cargobridge warehousing consortium. One difficulty for the consortium, which included Neptune Freight, was that access to this site was over lands owned by the Minister for Transport. On 1 October 1992, the Fianna Fáil Deputy, John McGuinness, then a member of Kilkenny County Council, made direct representations by letter to the then Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, to allow the consortium to access the site over the lands owned by Minister for Transport. At the same time, Deputy McGuinness's brother, Michael McGuinness, was a director of Neptune Freight. The Mahon report states that Michael McGuinness gave £10,000 in cash to Frank Dunlop in the knowledge that at least part of the money would be used for corrupt purposes. The report also states that Michael McGuinness refused to attend the tribunal.

The Fianna Fáil Deputy, John McGuinness, recently made strong, trenchant attacks and criticisms of the Mahon tribunal report following its publication, especially in respect of the tribunal costs. At the same time, he neglected to refer to his own intervention in the Cargobridge affair. Earlier today during his contribution in the Chamber, Deputy McGuinness failed to address the Mahon report remarks on his involvement in the affair. That is deplorable. Deputy McGuinness is currently Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts. I call on Deputy John McGuinness to step aside as Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts in the light of the Mahon tribunal account of his involvement in the Cargobridge affair.

A major part of the tribunal report deals with the Quarryvale lands. At the time of the rezoning of these lands I was an elected member of Dublin City Council. Part of the Quarryvale land, approximately 64 acres, although located in the Dublin County Council area, was in the ownership of Dublin Corporation, as it was then called. Any sale or disposal of these lands was a reserved function of the elected members of Dublin Corporation. In 1988, these lands were considered by Dublin County Council as suitable for commercial development. Early in 1989, Dublin Corporation proceeded with the sale of these lands by way of public tender. On 19 May 1989, a written report was put to the Dublin Corporation planning and development committee, of which I was then a member, to sell the Quarryvale lands to Mr. Thomas Gilmartin for the sum of £5.1 million. On that day the planning committee approved the proposal on the recommendation of the manager. At the following monthly meeting of Dublin City Council on 12 June, the recommendation of the planning committee was agreed by the full council meeting following the proposal of the Fianna Fáil councillor, Joe Burke.

The Mahon tribunal was set up in 1997 and its hearings on the Quarryvale module began in early 1999. I was greatly alarmed and shocked at the revelations made known at the tribunal hearings some ten years after Dublin City Council had voted on the matter, a vote in which I had participated. Page 211 of the report notes that Mr. Thomas Gilmartin, who I accept to be an honest man, informed the tribunal of a discussion he had with Bertie Ahern, the then Minister for Labour, in May 1989 in respect of Mr. Gilmartin's tender which was under consideration for the purchase of the Quarryvale lands.

Mr. Gilmartin told the tribunal that some days after his discussion with Bertie Ahern, Councillor Joe Burke, then the vice chairman of the Dublin Corporation planning committee, arrived at Mr. Gilmartin's office. Joe Burke told Mr. Gilmartin that he had been sent by Bertie Ahern to discuss Mr. Gilmartin's acquisition of the Quarryvale lands. Mr. Gilmartin further told the tribunal that he received a telephone call from Councillor Joe Burke on 13 June 1989 informing him that Dublin Corporation had approved his tender.

In the light of these revelations in 1999, ten years afterwards, I came to the conclusion that many of the Dublin Corporation members who voted for the sale of the Quarryvale lands were not given all the background facts relating to the activities of the Fianna Fáil Councillor, Joe Burke, and the then Minister, Bertie Ahern. At the least, Joe Burke misled his colleagues by failing to inform them of his role in the Quarryvale affair. Certainly, he never told me what he was at.

I could go on but I will conclude by saying that I agree fully with the recommendations in the report. I support the views that political corruption diverts public resources to the benefit of the few and to the detriment of the many; that corruption in public office is a fundamental breach of public trust and is inherently incompatible with the democratic nature of the State; and that anti-corruption measures must focus on ensuring transparency and accountability. I am proud to have been a Dublin Labour Party councillor for almost 32 years before I was elected to the House on 25 February last. There is more I could say but, unfortunately, time will not allow it.

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