PEOPLE BEFORE Profit councillor and general election candidate Deirdre Wadding has submitted a motion to Wexford Co. Council seeking the release of documents relating to the assembly of government offices at Anne Street, and to facilitate an independent investigation in the interest of the integrity of the council.

The motion comes on foot of comments made by the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment Community and Local Government – Deputy Ann Phelan, in the Dail after Deputy Joe Higgins called for a Commission of Investigation to look into how the site, which now houses the Department of Social Protection and the Revenue Commissioners office, was assembled by Wexford Borough Council and the OPW in the 1980s and 1990s.

Deputy Phelan remarked on that occasion that if there were issues with the manner in which the site was assembled then they should be raised, in the first instance, with Wexford Borough Council or its successor, Wexford Co. Council.

Concerns about the assembly of the site were originally raised by a local businessman Martin Power who brought these irregularities to the attention of various Oireachtas members where the issues have been consistently pursued by Deputy Joe Higgins, Deputy Maureen O’Sullivan, Deputy Finnian McGrath and Deputy Mattie McGrath resulting from a call from Deputy Joe Higgins in the Dail for the government to set up a Commission of Investigation under the Commission of Investigation Act 2004.

Cllr. Wadding intends moving the motion at the monthly council meeting in February.

She said: “I believe that the best way to deal with any such allegations is to be as open as possible and therefore we should facilitate a full, independent, transparent investigation into this.”

Martin Power said he welcomed the motion being brought by Cllr. Wadding and hopes that her fellow councillors in Wexford County Council will support the motion. He believes that Wexford County Council, in the interest of transparency, must now fully disclose the details of how Wexford Borough Council assembled the government site through the 1980s and 1990s and continued by saying that the assembly of the site is also of interest to various local property owners.