LEAKED REPORTS:MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley has indicated he may be open to further investigations into actions of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) following the publication by Fine Gael yesterday of three leaked DDDA reports.

Mr Gormley also rejected allegations by Fine Gael that the Government was involved in a “cover up”. He described the claims as scurrilous and “muck-raking”.

Fine Gael’s environment spokesman Phil Hogan yesterday laid the three documents before the Oireachtas but claimed that none came close to explaining the full truth of what happened within the authority over the past decade.

Mr Hogan said that he was disappointed to learn that none of the three reports inquired into past decision-making, the relationships between the DDDA board and Anglo Irish Bank, or corporate governance.

He said the State was potentially exposed to €500 million in losses through the authority’s involvement in the consortium that purchased the Irish Glass Bottle Company site in Ringsend for €412 million. One of the reports notes that the authority has written down the value of its 26 per cent share in the site to zero.

The three reports cover the authority’s approach to its financial systems, to planning issues and to corporate governance. The reports include instances of large dockland developments with inappropriate planning, major decisions taken by DDDA executives without reference to the board, and the effective “zero” valuation of the Ringsend site.

Alleging a political cover-up, Mr Hogan said he had a frustrating experience in getting at the truth about the modus operandi of the State-owned company, which has responsibility for regenerating the Dublin docklands.

He said the report into corporate governance looked only at the situation that pertained at the time Prof Niamh Brennan was appointed as chairwoman last year, and not at the historical situation.

“This is a serious political as well as a financial issue. There is no appetite to discover the truth and the cosy relationship between Anglo Irish Bank and the DDDA,” he said. (Anglo Irish Bank’s Seán FitzPatrick and Lar Bradshaw were also DDDA directors.)

“There are indication of the collusion that took place in the DDDA between bankers and developers and executives and politicians..

“Prof Brennan has talked of the systematic conflict of interest between the DDDA and Anglo. But it’s not evident in any of the three reports,” he said.

But Mr Gormley utterly dismissed the allegation. “He accused me of a cover-up several weeks ago. He said it would contain explosive material. He realises that [the reports] don’t contain that explosive material,” he told RTÉ.

Earlier, Mr Gormley defended his decision not to publish the reports into the authority. “I was in no position to put out those reports against the advice of the Attorney General,” he said. The Government’s legal adviser has said that the reports should not be published until individuals criticised in them had been given a chance to respond, he said.

The Minister expressed the hope that he would be able to publish them in the next few weeks and he insisted that new procedures for governance at the authority had been put in place.

Mr Gormley said that a fourth report looking at the financial options was also commissioned.

But he didn’t rule out any further reports. He indicated that previous reports have examined what happened and signalled there may be a need for further reports into how and why certain decisions were made.

Joe Costello of Labour said that the reports had raised some disquieting questions that needed to be answered.

“It appears that much of the problem was due to the fact that there was crossover of high-level membership of the board of the DDDA with the board of Anglo Irish Bank. Seán FitzPatrick and Lar Bradshaw were prominent members of both boards.

“The irregularities in planning, financing and conflicts of interest have damaged the reputation of the authority and crippled its operation in recent years.

“It is unbelievable that the Minister for the Environment has been sitting on these two reports for five months and even still has not agreed to publish their contents,” he said.

He said that some of the matters in the report may have to be referred to the DPP.

This theme was taken up by Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Féin. She said that anyone who was found to have made corrupt planning decisions should face the full rigours of the law.