Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

There have been the most serious irregularities in the assembly of the site for significant public offices which are now occupied by the Department of Social Protection and the Revenue Commissioners in Anne Street, Wexford. That assembly took place over a 20-year period from 1983. I was made aware of the issue as far back as 2008 and I have investigated it at different times in the years since. My concern has grown significantly. I have engaged in significant correspondence with State bodies, including Wexford Borough Council and the Revenue Commissioners, but I have not received satisfactory answers. Deputies Maureen O'Sullivan and Finian McGrath have equally made inquiries to agencies such as the Office of Public Works and I understand that no satisfactory explanation has been forthcoming.

I am satisfied that there are serious unanswered questions and anomalies surrounding the assembling of this site involving public bodies. The site was funded by taxpayers and there must be full transparency by the public bodies involved in how taxpayers' money was spent and in the methods of the assembly of that site where we have substantial government offices. The issue is complex and convoluted but documents that I have seen are prima facieevidence of very serious irregularities, giving rise to serious unanswered questions by public bodies in the matter of the assembly of the site. This irregularity has had a serious detrimental effect on the lives of innocent individuals and caused an injustice to them and to their civil and human rights, so it is critical that the answers are provided.

I do not lightly raise instances of specific wrongdoing or irregularities and I have only very rarely done so since I came into the Dáil. I did so in 2005 with regard to the multinational Gama construction company, alleging very serious irregularities after careful scrutiny. Those allegations were greeted with incredulity but, upon examination, they stood up and a lot more wrongdoing was uncovered as result of my standing in this spot to make those revelations. Wexford Borough Council and the Office of Public Works must disclose all the facts about this development and put them into the public domain.

The putting together of this site for public offices was concluded in the late 1990s. Given the complex nature of how this site was assembled, I believe a commission of investigation set up under the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 is the appropriate mechanism, not a tribunal and not a Garda inquiry but a specific and targeted commission of investigation inquiry. From the documentation I have seen, and in consonance with the legislation where people of concern would be consulted about the terms of reference and the evidence, I believe very tight but comprehensive terms of reference could be quickly assembled and I ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to begin the process, even in the dying days of this Dáil.

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