Gavin's Blog

Dug up from the RTE archives. Brings back memories, or perhaps new material for younger readers. Unfortunately, nothing was done about it.

The words of the Revenue ring hollow after publication:

Hopefully this list is about to get much longer:

Adobe Acrobat is needed to view most of these documents. Download it here.

Planning Tribunal
First Interim Report (.pdf) (1997)
Second Interim Report (.pdf) (2002)
Third Interim Report (.pdf)
Fourth Interim Report (.pdf) (2004)

Morris Tribunal

First report (Report on explosives ‘finds’ in Donegal)(.pdf) (2004)
Second report (Report on the investigation into the death of Richard Barron and the extortion calls to Michael and Charlotte Peoples) (.pdf) (2005)
Third report (Ardara)(.pdf)(2006)
Fourth report (Burnfoot)(.pdf)(2006)
Fifth report (Silver Bullet)(.pdf)(2006)

Moriarty Tribunal

First report of the Moriarty Tribunal (.pdf) (2006)

Ansbacher

Report of the Inspectors Appointed to Enquire into the Affairs of Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd

Comptroller and Auditor General

DIRT report (.doc)
PPARS report (.pdf) (2005)
Bord na gCon report (.pdf) (2008)

High Court Inspector

National Irish Bank Report (.pdf) (2004) (minus appendices)

Garda

Dean Lyons Report

The Government Publications Office does not appear to have it. Does anyone have a copy of the report?

Further to the launch of Kildare Street, I have been attempting to build a digital database of important documents and reports.

For now the provisional list is over at Public Inquiry, but I hope to either build a dedicated website to house these documents, or perhaps wikify the whole thing.

I recently got my hands on the Ansbacher Report (all 560Mb of it), and will upload the entirety. I went to the Government Publications Office yesterday looking for the Beef Tribunal report, but it was nowhere to be found and they directed me to the Department of Agriculture of all places. Other reports to be included will be the McCracken Tribunal report, the Dean Lyons report, the Ferns report, among others.

Feel free to suggest any other reports that should be included.

You may have already come across it by now but I am pleased to announce – after the Herculean efforts of one John Handelaar – that the Irish version of TheyWorkForYou.com, Kildare Street, is now open for business in beta form.

I hope you all find it very useful, as I will.

Here is the Memo of Association. The firm is directed by property developer Enda Hunston. Taoiseach Brian Cowen is related to the firm in this story.

I wonder what Mr Hunston’s history is.

In March 2004, Mr Hunston claimed his signature had been forged on a joint investment agreement over a €3.3m hotel and fishing lodge development in Mayo. His co-investors were former Esat Digifone chief executive Barry Moloney, Mr Moloney’s brothers Alan and James, and British venture capitalist Bruce Dunlevie.

All four denied that they had forged his signature. It was also suggested that the contractor who had been awarded the tender to build the development, was not the contractor (Mitchell O’Grady), Mr Hunston wanted. Apparently Mr Hunston had met Alan Moloney while working at Norwich Union. He had never met Barry Moloney until the events that led to the proceedings began. The case centred on Mount Falcon in Mayo.

In late March, the case was settled, with the four defendants accepting that the signature on the document was not Mr Hunston’s, though they were not responsible for placing the signature on the document. Alan Moloney claimed that Mr Hunston had also admitted to him that he had handed confidential documents to Mitchell O’Grady relating to the tendering process. Mr Moloney said Mr Hunston had apologised for this. He said Mr Hunston had claimed there would be serious consequences if Mitchell O’Grady did not get the contract, and Mr Moloney had taken this as a threat. He asked Mr Hunston to elaborate, where, he said, Mr Hunston replied that the project would have lost the political connections of Mitchell O’Grady.

Mr Hunston denied this.

Bernard Mitchell was involved with Mitchell O’Grady, but Mr Hunston denied there was any payback promised. All of Mr Mitchell’s firms are now dissolved. They were:

BERNARD MITCHELL PLANT HIRE LIMITED
EUROFRONT CONSTRUCTION LIMITED
M & OG CONTRACTORS LIMITED (Mitchell O’Grady)
MASTER OAKS DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED

The Irish Times reported that Mr Hunston’s speciality, when working as a mortgage and pension advisor in the late 1990s, was investment in tax-designated properties.

As well as being director of Carr Mills Property, Mr Hunston is also a director of:

King Oaks Developments Ltd
Hunston Aviation Ltd
Hunston Group International Property Consultants Ltd
Global Financial Index Ltd

He also appears to be a director of

Reventer Holdings Ltd

I got my hands on a PDF version of the report. It was nowhere to be found on the internet until today.

There are dozens of appendices, which I hope to add soon.

This is part of my effort to digitise all previous tribunal reports and High Court investigations. New Years’ resolution and all that jazz.

Developers in bid to push ahead with rezoning of 280 acres in west Dublin

Screamed the headline in the Sunday Tribune a few weeks back. It reminded me of some of the headlines that surrounded rezonings back in the early 1990s. As it turns out, it is not that far removed.

The article says:

Although councillors voted by 19 votes to two against motion put forward by a Progressive Democrat councillor in support of the development two years ago, Sandymark Ltd said it believes its new proposal to rezone some 280 acres of land “ticks all the boxes” and is confident it will be passed.

However, deputy county manager Tom Doherty, who strongly opposed the “entirely inappropriate” previous plans in a report to the council at the time, has told the Sunday Tribune that “it is not considered that there is any reason to vary the views set out in that report”.

Sounds familiar. Interestingly:

The lands include approximately 30 acres owned by Laurence Harney, a brother of former Progressive Democrat leader and health minister Mary Harney, who has said in the past she has “no beneficial interest whatsoever” in the transaction.

It continues:

The land is owned by a group of local landowners and Sandymark, and is located between Newcastle and Rathcoole, not far from Citywest and the commuter towns of Lucan and Clondalkin.

In a document circulated to local residents in Newcastle recently, Sandymark claims that “despite the current economic crisis, the need and demand for houses will return”. It says it hopes to begin construction in late 2011 or early 2012.

A spokeswoman said the number of residential units envisaged had decreased from around 4,000 to 2,500 over 15 years, while the number of acres to be rezoned had fallen from 425 to around 280.

Gosh it’s like a timewarp. No doubt any rezoning of this land would result in much higher land values, so Sandymark and Mr Harney would gain much from a decision by South Dublin County Council to rezone. I was curious about this crowd Sandymark, so I went a digging.

There are actually two Sandymark companies, Sandymark Investments Ltd and Sandymark Construction Ltd.

Sandymark Investments is located at Greenogue Industrial Estate, Co Dublin. Sandymark Investments recently registered a mortgage, financed by Bank of Ireland, for the purchase of lands at Ashbrooke, known as the Murphy lands, owned by Michael Murphy and Michael Murphy Jnr.

Here is the register of the mortgage.

But who owns Sandymark Investments? Well it’s owned by two more companies, Maple Nominees and Maple Secretaries. Here is the memorandum of association for the company.

And who owns the Maple firms? Well I had a look at the books of Maple Secretaries, purely out of curiosity. The directors are listed here. That would be the same solicitors listed on the forms for Sandymark. And note that the address given for the Maple companies is the same address as the solicitor firm in question.

Laurence K Shields
Edmund Butler
Hugh Garvey
Gerry Halpenny
Emmett Scully
Alan Browning (Secretary)

Now one of those names piqued my interest, Hugh Garvey. It rang a bell so I went a Googling. They all work as partners at Mr Shields’ firm on Upper Mount Street. I recognised Hugh Garvey because he represented certain people at the Tribunals.

Of course this got me really interested. So I went digging further.

Well look here. Back in 2002, Sandymark Investments gave £1,000 to one Councillor Colm McGrath (Ind but formerly of FF). If that name sounds familiar, it’s probably because it is.

Mr McGrath is one of the councillors Frank Dunlop claims to have given bribes to. Indeed, Mr McGrath admits to receiving “political donations” from Dunlop. Mr McGrath made several appearances at the Mahon Tribunal, as you can see here. One of the donations involved Dunlop handing Mr McGrath £2,000 cash in a copy of the Irish Times.

He failed to get elected to South Dublin County Council in the 2004 election.

Mr McGrath has an interesting history. He was one of the Top Fifteen back in the early 1990s, or among the top councillors proposing or seconding Section Fours and material contravention motions between 1985 and 1991. He backed the rezoning of the Quarrvale lands from the beginning, lands at the centre of the Quarryvale II module at the Tribunal, made infamous by Bertie Ahern’s alleged involvement.

In October 2007, Frank Dunlop told the Mahon Tribunal that property developer Owen O’Callaghan paid off a debt of £10,700 for Colm McGrath when he was facing a court judgment.

Another interesting bit in all this: Mary Harney’s brother. Mr Harney was listed as a defaulter by the Revenue in 2001.

Of course I am not suggesting anything untoward in the behaviour of Sandymark. They are seeking to rezone the lands, and are doing so in an entirely legal manner. The donation to Mr McGrath was also declared, so all is above board. I was just interested in the names and the faces.