The chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board has resigned from the board of a Dublin-owned property company to distance himself from the Garda investigation into alleged IRA money laundering, he announced today.
Sir Desmond Rea resigned as a non-executive director of Ivy Wood Properties, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harcourt Developments.
Sir Desmond Rea
Former Sinn Féin vice-president Mr Phil Flynn resigned from the board of Harcourt, and other leading positions in the Irish Republic, after being questioned by police about the alleged money laundering scam.
Sir Desmond joined the board of Ivy Wood last September. It owns former Harland and Wolff shipyard land now being developed. He said to the best of his knowledge he had never met Mr Flynn.
Sir Desmond said in a statement: "As soon as I had the first indication that there was any link - however tenuous and speculative - between my position as a non-executive director of Ivy Wood Properties Ltd and the widespread coverage around the ongoing policing operations in the Irish Republic, I decided that it would be appropriate for me to stand down from the Ivy Wood Properties Board, which I joined only last September."
He said he wanted to make it entirely clear that he knew of no information whatsoever to link Ivy Wood, or the development in Belfast, with any wrongdoing. "I have submitted my resignation from Ivy Wood Properties Ltd merely as a precautionary measure to provide yet further distance," said Sir Desmond.
PA