Socialist TD Joe Higgins has alleged that there were “serious irregularities” in the assembly of the site which now houses the Department of Social Protection and Revenue Commissioners office on Anne Street.
SOCIALIST TD Joe Higgins has called for a Commission of Investigation into “serious irregularities” surrounding the assembly of a site for public offices in Anne Street during the 1980s and 1990s.
Deputy Higgins, a TD for Dublin West, explained that the assembly of land in Anne Street, which would later house the Department of Social Protection and Revenue Commissioners, had taken place over a number of years beginning in 1983 and concluding in the 1990s. He said he had been made aware of the issue back in 2008 and had raised it at different times since then, with all relevant bodies, and had not received any satisfactory answers.
He said: “I am satisfied that there are serious unanswered questions and anomalies surrounding the assembling of this site involving public bodies. The site was funded by taxpayers and there must be full transparency by the public bodies involved in how taxpayers’ money was spent and in the methods of the assembly of that site where we have substantial government offices.”
He remarked that the issue was “complex, even Byzantine” but said he had seen documents which were prima facie evidence of “very serious irregularities giving rise to serious unanswered questions.”
He added: “This irregularity has had a serious detrimental effect on the lives of innocent individuals and caused an injustice to them and to their civil and human rights, so it is critical that the answers are provided. Wexford Borough Council and the Office of Public Works must disclose all the facts about this development and put them into the public domain.”
In response, Deputy Ann Phelan, Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, said that she raise the issue with her line Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly but pointed out that the Department had no direct responsibility for, or involvement in, the assembly of land for local authorities.
She pointed out that the Office of Public Works (OPW) had acquired two sites from Wexford Borough Council in the 1990s, both of which now accommodate government offices on Anne Street. One of the sites was acquired by way of an agreement with Wexford Borough Council dated May 22, 1995 for £145,000. The other site was acquired by the OPW from Wexford Borough Council under an agreement dated January 2, 1997 in exchange for a site owned by OPW in King Street. The site transferred to the OPW had been assembled by the Borough Council by compulsory purchase order and the OPW had not been a party to this assembly.
She said: “Therefore, if there are issues with the manner in which these sites were assembled by Wexford Borough Council, they should be raised in the first instance with its successor Wexford Co. Council.”
[Full story in this week’s Echo]
