Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I welcome the Minister, Deputy Gormley, to the House and thank him for taking this motion on the Adjournment.

As he will be aware, last year he commissioned two reports relating to the operation of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. At the time, there were serious concerns about its governance and about planning issues, and the Minister requested the new chairwoman of the authority, Professor Niamh Brennan, to compile two reports on these two areas. I understand those two reports have been on the Minister's desk for four or five months. The former Senator, Déirdre de Búrca, castigated him for not publishing the contents of the reports, stated that they were quite explosive and suggested that perhaps he was deliberately refraining from publishing them for that reason.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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The Deputy knows it is untrue.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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The Minister stated that he had to get the Attorney General to have a look at them. Nevertheless, it seems a considerable period of time has elapsed and I now seek a date for their publication.

It is inevitable that in the case of reports of such importance some of their contents will be eventually leaked to the media. In those leaked reports there were serious allegations that State money was recklessly squandered by the docklands development authority in the purchase of the Irish Glass Bottle site which took place at the height of the boom in January 2007 and that a proper evaluation of the site was not conducted.

There were equally serious — perhaps even more serious — allegations that a significant number of projects granted planning permission by the docklands development authority may well be flawed and subject to legal challenge, as has already happened successfully in one case.

I have further issues that may or may not have been addressed in the reports. I am particularly concerned about the failure of the docklands development authority to address its mission statement, which was to provide 20% social housing on the docklands. In all, 811 units were granted planning permission but only 300 plus were built, and there were only 37 built on the northside. We have been told lies by the docklands development authority about, for example——

Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that we do not like that word. I am only following regulations. Do not be offended by me.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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——the units that were constructed in Castleforbes, where the Department paid €4.5 million or €4.6 million to the local authority to purchase those apartments. We have been told that the reason the docklands development authority is not releasing them — this is over an 18-month period — is that it did not want them to be sold at such a high price and it was waiting for them to be reduced. Now we discover they have not been even completed and yet the capital subsidy has been requested from the Minister and has been paid to the local authority, but the docklands development authority will not release them. Therefore, we have been told mistruths on this issue.

I also have serious questions about the propriety of some payments which were drawn down, obviously without the Minister's knowledge, from his Department for social housing that was constructed by various developers under agreements with the docklands development authority. This involved sums in excess of €50 million, where capital funding payments were made by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government for social housing where an agreement had been made on the gasometer site, which is a 27-acre site that was in the ownership of the docklands development authority. Of course, the agreement was made with the developer that the 20% social housing, when constructed, would be transferred without charge to the docklands development authority, but it still appears to have drawn down the capital subsidy from the Department. Has there been double payments in this respect and what has happened to the money that has been drawn down, I would regard, wrongly? Has it been used, as I have heard, to defray interest payments on the €127 million of the 26% share of the worthless Irish Glass Bottle site on which it must pay interest?

Have the reports addressed these additional issues. If they have not, I want the Minister to address them. I can give him what further information I have on these matters.

Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Deputy to conclude.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I ask the Minister to publish the two reports immediately, state what action he proposes to take and address the issues I have raised.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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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.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I fully agree with the Minister and he has done a fine job in this respect. Will he take on board the assertions I made earlier and look into them too?

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Yes.

Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I wish the Minister, Members and staff of the Houses a happy and peaceful Easter.