The Labour Party has claimed that proposals by the Dublin Port Company to become involved in a consortium to build the National Conference Centre on its lands are in clear breach of State guidelines and laws relating to harbour companies.
Calling on the Government to veto the proposed deal, Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte claimed the State-owned body was in clear breach of legislation which required Dublin Port to go through a full tender process in relation to any partnership relating to its land.
The company is part of the Anna Livia Consortium, which is one of two bidders for the National Conference Centre tender currently being considered by the Government.
The proposed location of the conference centre is on a 27-acre site beside the port, which could have major development potential.
The port company has yet to reveal its plans for the entire site and whether these involve members of the Anna Livia consortium, which includes Bennet Construction and Kilsaran Concrete.
In recent months, Dublin Port Company has sought permission from Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey to proceed with the conference centre consortium. The company has been involved in the consortium for at least a year.
Mr Dempsey has now sought legal advice from the Attorney General, Rory Brady, as to whether the proposed deal is within Government guidelines.
Yesterday Mr Rabbitte said there could be "no doubt but that any such deal would be in clear breach of the code of practice for the Governance of State Bodies, published by the Minister for Finance in 2001".
He said the guidelines stipulate that commercial deals involving State-owned assets valued at above €70,000 should be by action or competitive tendering process.
"Furthermore, the method of disposal must be both transparent and likely to achieve a fair market-related price," Mr Rabbitte said.
"In this case, it is not just the non-statutory guidelines and codes of practice that would be breached but also the law.
"Section 15 (2) of the Harbours Act 1996 states that the consideration for which any land is sold by a harbour company 'shall, in so far as is practicable, not be less than its open market value'."
Mr Rabbitte said the proposed deal raised a number of questions.
"We are asked to believe that Dublin Port was simply 'facilitating' a private sector consortium by permitting it to enter the competition to provide a national conference centre, when this consortium had no land of its own and the site it chose for its proposal was on public lands, owned by the port.
"We are told this facilitation was done without any contract, commitment or consideration.
"We are asked to believe that the Dublin Port and its board saw no need to inform its shareholder the Minister for the Marine of its interest in the conference centre competition or of its facilitating one of the entrants.