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June 2017 5
News Miscellany
Villager
Gratuitous Trump
Image Section
Corb out of the bin
As Village was going to print Theresa May was
vacillating over her electoral crucifixtion. Her
Big Strategy was never going to go well: A lethal
package of elusiveness (not making herself
available for debate against the other leaders)
and arrogance (assuming her personality,
“Strong and Stable” though dull, would inspire)
in a bid to replace a solid majority with a rare
landslide. It all conduces to Villager’s long-
standing prediction that Brexit is ultimately
doomed. Another upside is that if the Tories are
relying on a resurgent DUP, at least the issue of
the Border will rise up their political agenda.
InConvienient Truths
Minister for Planning and Local Government
Simon Coveney, TD, has told the Dáil that the
report by Rory Mulcahy, senior counsel, of the
review into allegations of planning irregulari-
ties in Donegal is due to be delivered by the
middle of June.
The ongoing independent scoping review of
some of the horrible planning of that county
dating back 20 years was ordered in February
2015, looking at allegations made by Gerard
Convie, a former senior planner with Donegal
County Council with twenty years service there,
who made claims of planning malpractice in the
county.
The review was ordered by Coveney’s prede
-
cessor, Alan Kelly, in February 2015.
A departmental report in 2012 found that
there was no evidence to back up Convie’s
claims. That report was overturned in
June 2014 after Convie took High Court
action against the department. The
report was withdrawn and the Depart-
ment of the Environment apologised
and paid him €25,000, acknowledging
his “sincerely held concerns” about
planning matters in Donegal and
regretting adverse comment it had
made on his motivation and any nega-
tive impact on his good name.
In 2010 a review into bad practice in seven
local authorities, including Donegal, had been
ordered by former Environment Minister John
Gormley.
But that review was stopped when the Fianna
Fáil-Green government fell. It was reinstated
after the apology to Convie, and made various
findings about the six other counties. But Don
-
egal is the Big One, where a senior counsel
needed to be brought in.
Convie has for years, in court and elsewhere,
claimed that during his tenure there was bully-
ing and intimidation within the council - of
planners who sought to make decisions based
exclusively on the planning merits of particular
applications. He claims one councillor con-
stantly referred to him as a ”wee shit from the
North”.
In an affidavit opened in his High Court pro
-
ceedings, Convie alleges another planner:
NEWS
Convie: Planning whistleblower
6 June 2017
1.
Recommended permissions that
breached the Donegal County Develop-
ment Plan to an extent that was almost
systemic
2. Submitted planning applications to Don
-
egal County Council on behalf of friends
and associates
3.
Dealt with planning applications from
submission to decision
4.
Ignored the recommendations of other
planners
5.
Destroyed the recommendations of other
planners
6.
Submitted fraudulent correspondence to
the planning department
7. Forged signatures
8.
Improperly interfered as described in a
number of planning applications
9. Was close to a number of leading archi
-
tects and developers in Donegal,
including the head of the largest ‘archi-
tectural’ practice in Donegal, with whom
he holidayed.
Former County Manager Michael McLoone,
who was both Convie’s ultimate boss and the
man ultimately responsible for the planning
department and its decisions, claims that no fur-
ther actions are necessary on charges made by
Gerard Convie against him, on the basis that
Convie actually withdrew these allegations on
foot of a settlement that was made to avert a
High Court appearance in October 2001 over
much the same allegations.
A better view is that the Council and its plan
-
ners have a civic obligation to vindicate
themselves, not just in relation to any one man
but for the whole population of Donegal, for
which they are responsible.
Moreover, Michael McLoone is continuing with
his High Court proceedings for defamation
against Village for printing the allegations
referred to, contained in the affidavit opened in
court proceedings, made by Convie.
Needed: Rocks
As Village was going to print Varadkar was
reported as saying he plans to appoint ministers
he can “trust” - “the core issue”. What a lost
opportunity: democracy depends so much more
on the appointments of those it turns out their
controlling, whipping masters could not trust.
Not needed: Rock
Noel Rock, who nominated Enda Kenny as Taoi-
seach last year, but whose support later
wavered, and at 29 is the Dáil’s youngest face,
was appointed to the Joint Committee on Jobs
Enterprise and Innovation. It’s a good gig for a
first-time TD. However, the chair of it, Mary
Butler, had to have a word with the Fine Gael
whip as his attendance has been so poor, though
it’s not clear what else could be diverting this
political whippersnapper. Rock reportedly now
feels that he should be appointed directly to cab-
inet. However, advisors to Varadkar have urged
him to ensure no first-time TD is promoted ahead
of others, bad news for Dublin Rathdown TD
Josepha Madigan and Rock who were involved in
the winning campaign.
If you have a reputation for
getting up early…
For somebody who says he represents people
who get up early in the morning, the incoming
Taoiseach is not so fond of early-morning meet-
ings himself. Both in the Department of Health
and Department of Social Protection, Villager
has heard civil servants were warned not to set
up meetings for him before 10 of a morning. Vil
-
lager too rarely achieves anything before
elevenses. But at least he doesn’t pretend.
Lies, damned lies
On 30 May 2017 the Government adopted the
Commitment on Confidence in Statistics, thus
fulfilling obligations to the European Council and
amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on Euro-
pean statistics. It is to be hoped that the
Department of Housing, in particular its statisti-
cians dealing with social housing and indeed
housing delivery, take this seriously. For we
have been in grievous breach.
Pressed-up not demolished
The ‘staff’ at Village now spends all its free time
in a swish new restaurant, Roberta’s, which has
just opened on the vast first floor of Dollard
House, a former printer’s and Ireland’s first
steel-framed building. It provides views over
Ormond Quay opposite, where Villager and the
‘editorial team’ at Village lucubrate next to the
crumbling Ormond Hotel.
NAMA-vanquisher Paddy McKillen Senior,
Bono and the Edge got permission to demolish
Dollard House behind a retained quayfront
façade in 2008, as part of extravagant plans to
expand the Clarence Hotel next door but failed
to develop it as the economy tanked. They
retained a range of buildings including what is
now the Workmen’s Club, the Bison Bar, the
Garage Bar and the Liquor Rooms, though as
recently as two years ago they sought to extend
the permission they had to demolish them.
Thankfully they were refused permission as the
scheme was deemed to breach the Dublin City
Development Plan, something that hadn’t pre-
vented the City Council granting development
permission five years earlier, perhaps out of def-
erence to U2 and Lord Foster who designed the
spaceship that would have descended on most
of Wellington Quay.
Roberta’s is the latest bauble from ‘Press Up’
Entertainment Group, the restaurant and hotel
vehicle of Paddy McKillen Jnr and Matt Ryan. It
also holds the Dean Hotel, Angelina’s, Wow-
Burger, Peruke & Periwig, the Liquor Rooms,
Howl At The Moon and the Vintage Cocktail Club.
All their enterprises are comprehensively
themed and most sound like… Vintage
Cocktails.
Bananama Republic
It is an extraordinary declaration of inadequacy
that NAMA, which was mandated to deliver a
long-forgotten ‘social dividend’ has, since its
instigation, disposed of enough land for 50,000
homes, but seen only 3,000 built. It would have
been absolutely entitled to link disposals to
delivery of housing – as well of course as to other
dividends such as parks and leisure facilities.
Developers claim they have no interest in hoard-
ing land. The problem, they say, is getting
finance to build.
Vacant threats
Perhaps reflecting a guilty mind Michael Noonan
is leaving a parting shot of a levy of 3 per cent
annually for land-hoarders of “vacant sites”.
However, landowners will not feel the squeeze
for at least another 18 months, the Department
will as usual screw up in its definition of
“vacancy” and in any event the levy competes
with the incentive to hold on to land which ben-
efits from another Noonan initiative – to
eliminate taxation on gains made on land which
has been held for over seven years.
Daly communicant
David Daly of Albany and Manor Park Homes has
published a swashbuckling Celtic Tiger novel
and launched a new career for himself as NAMA’s
most available antagonist. He appeared recently
on Marian Finucane to bemoan the role of NAMA
in preventing his companies build much-needed
NEWS
First-timer, Josepha
Madigan: no preferment
June 2017 7
houses.
Of course NAMA is losing the communications
battle with furious developers.
The truth is that while Daly’s companies may
have always been performing, that if NAMA was
going to avoid losing on every deal there were
going to be associated developers who felt they
should have availed of the upswing the state’s
bad bank was benefitting from on behalf of the
State – for themselves. Daly’s legacy isn’t much
in terms of the quality of the estates he built and
Villager is old enough to remember the 1980s
when Daly’s Manor Park Homes was best know
for knocking down trees in ‘Dorney Court’ at the
heart of Dublin’s Shankill and stripping out the
historic interior of a historic house on St Ste-
phen’s Green.
Macr on air
Villager’s favourite event of the year so far was
Macron’s double shimmy away, to avoid shaking
hands with an oncoming Trump while he shook
hands with every last head of Europe, at a gath
-
ering before a NATO meeting in Brussels shortly
after his election. Trump then attempted to yank
Macron’s arm out of its socket, except that the
elegant new French President has no need of
sockets.
Putindifferent
These days it feels like every time there is an
election in Europe - or in America – oligarchical
Russia is cast in the role of meddler in chief.
Macron duly ticked off the Russians and their
media.
Last month UK Foreign Secretary Boris John
-
son said there was a “realistic possibility”
Russia might try to meddle in the recent UK elec-
tion. It didn’t though. Clearly it couldn’t be
bothered: leaving the UK to its entirely home-
grown demise.
Brexit and Isis
Poor Britain increasingly seems to be delivering
on the 1970s ‘Action Comic’ dystopian vision of
its future.
Though a big part of every naughty boy’s read-
ing it was actually withdrawn from circulation in
1976 over concerns about its violent content.
‘Hook Jaw’, ‘Judge Dredd’ and ‘Rollerball’ now
seem like workaday features of the discourse.
The Thing comes before a fall
Giving testimony to a congressional hearing that
the Trump administration had told lies and
defamed him and the FBI when the president
fired him on May 9, former FBI Director James
Comey would not say whether he thought the
president had sought to obstruct justice.
In a written deposition he claimed Trump tried
to get him to shut down the federal investigation
into his former national security adviser, Michael
T Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February.
The last time Comey spoke to Trump was on an
11 April phone call, when Trump repeated his
request that Comey make public the truth that
the President was not under investigation, com-
plaining that “the cloud” hanging over his
presidency was stopping him from doing his job.
Trump then said: “Because I have been very loyal
to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know”.
Comey says he did not reply or ask what the
president meant by “that thing”.
Villager wonders if perhaps the thing is the
same as the one that the Allen family can never
refer to, as Oliver Callan sees it in his radio skit.
However, it appears to have been the thing
that occurred when, in response to Trump’s hec-
toring him into improperly declaring his
“loyalty”, Comey was bamboozled into asserting
that President had his “honest loyalty”, what-
ever that meant.
The thing was not good enough. Less than a
month later, on 9 May, Trump fired Comey.
Daly: tree-knocker
Macron looking for someone presidential
The Allen family, ignoring a Ballymaloe ‘thing’
Action has become reality
8 June 2017
The New York Daily News blasted Trump‘s deci-
sion to pull the United States from the 2015 Paris
climate accord. Reneging on pledges to reduce
carbon emissions sparked its headline ‘TRUMP
TO WORLD: DROP DEAD’. The imputed addressee
of Presidential contempt has been aggrandised
since the famous 1975 headline ‘FORD TO CITY:
DROP DEAD’ which ran in the Daily News after
bumbling President Gerald Ford refused to
authorise federal loans to New York City,
then teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
Stuff your public interest or
concern
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
booted, and I mean booted, out the editor’s com-
plaint about the misrepresentations in your man
Varadkar’s ad about Welfare Fraud. The ubiqui-
tous campaign claimed that “Last year” the
Department of Social Protection saved €500m
by clamping down on fraud and overpayments.
In fact the figure was calculated on the basis the
fraud or overpayment would have continued for
an indefinite period.
The actual figure saved “for last year” was in
fact €41m for fraud, with €79m saved in other
overpayments. Make that up as €500m if you
will.
The ASA quite reasonably drew attention to
the fact its Code applies to “marketing commu-
nications which have a commercial objective”
not to those “whose principal purpsose is to
express the advertiser’s position on a political,
religious or industrial relations, social or aes-
thetic matter or on an issue of public interest or
concern”.
Interfering, pedantic loser
And the editor got no further with a recent letter
to the Marian Finucane show’s producers:
“I am wondering if you could kindly answer a
few questions about the Marian Finucane pro-
gramme please.
1.
Who decides the composition of the
panel on the programme?
2. What criteria are used in composing it?
3. Is balance measured over time to ensure
particular interests, sectors and individu-
als are not over-represented or
under-represented?
4. Here is a link to an article that appeared
in Village magazine in 2014… and pur-
ports to find particular patterns of
representation on the show. Why is there
such a strong representation of profes-
sionals, lawyers and PR people on the
show?
5.
Are panellists required to disclose any
vested interests they may be
representing
6.
Is Marian Finucane required to disclose
any vested interests she may have (I
should say I have no reason to believe
she behaves anything other than appro-
priately in this regard).
7.
How many times has Mr Ken Murphy of
the Irish Law Society, for example, who
incarnates vested interestedness, been
on the show over the last five years? Who
has arranged for this?”.
A nice woman from RTE rang eventually to say
they don’t comment on how they compose their
panels. And why should they?
Come BAYA
The first Building and Architect of the Year
Awards (BAYA) were held on 8 June in the Man-
sion House, Dublin. It is a new initiative to
recognise architectural excellence in building
and design. The timing was a sneaky two weeks
before the established annual RIAI Irish Archi-
tecture Awards in the same venue. BAYA
chose Frank McDonald, former Irish Times envi-
ronment editor and architectural aficionado as
‘judging co-ordinator’, while most of the judges
are based in the UK. To understandable wide-
spread irritation one RIAI architect was a judge
for both awards.
The tickets cost three times the price of the
RIAI awards (€240-285) and creased chinos on
seats were encouraged by the presentation of
the Outstanding Achievement award to every
architect’s favourites, the effervescent Shelley
McNamara and Yvonne Farrell of Grafton Archi-
tects who over the years have taught many of the
attendees, in UCD. It may be that BAYA is capi-
talising on disaffection for the RIAI for its clumsy
handling of architect registration and over-pay-
ment to its former head, John Graby. If so, it’s
interesting that architects were willing, without
demur, to pay the inflated ticket prices demanded
by the new kids in town.The awards are organ-
ised by Business River Ltd with an office on
Dublin’s Aungier Street. Its website states that
the awards provide “a much needed platform for
architects and their buildings”. A scaffold would
have suited the RIAI better.
Dicie
In 2002 Fine Gael TD Jim Higgins sought a Dáil
inquiry into a controversial land deal at Spencer
Dock in Dublin between CIE and development
firm Treasury Holdings.
The State-owned company entered into a joint
venture arrangement with Treasury Holdings in
1998 to build the National Convention Centre and
a series of hotels, office blocks and apartments
on the 51.5-acre site owned by CIE. However,
planning permission was refused.
Even though the plan didn’t go ahead, the deal
locked CIE into a contract with Treasury Hold-
ings. The CIE team that negotiated the deal
included its then director of programmes and
projects, Dr Ray Byrne, and its then property
manager, Jim Gahan. CIE valued the deal at
between €300m and €354.4m at 1998 values.
However, prices for similar land sold in the area
suggested that CIE could have got up to double
this for the site.
The deal guaranteed CIE up to 15 per cent of
the rent from completed developments. But CIE
didn’t receive any up-front payment and its own
figures show that the deal could have been
worth up to €2.3bn to Treasury Holdings, even
though CIE owned the land.
Treasury Holdings was a company controlled
by Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett. It went
bankrupt, costing the State around a net €700m.
It was wound up in October 2012 with debts of
€2.7bn, €1.7bn of which was owed to NAMA.
NEWS
Not accountable
June 2017 9
Ron an d on
Earlier this year People Before Profit TD Richard
Boyd Barrett told the Dáil he had been given a
folder of documents concerning the sale of a site
at Spencer Dock.
Boyd Barrett said the site was owned by CIE,
and originally developed by Treasury Holdings,
of which Johnny Ronan was a director.
He said under the original NAMA Act, develop-
ers were not supposed to get their own sites
back.
“That site is now commencing development
again”, the TD said.
“The original developer was Treasury Hold-
ings, and it was reported that Johnny Ronan of
Treasury holdings was the preferred bidder
when that site was put out at the market at a
guide price of €50m”
Boyd Barrett said he had a number of ques-
tions about the deal.
“The first question I have is, Johnny Ronan
exited NAMA paying off his €250m debt. He now
has the site again”.
He also said the guide price for the site was
€50m, but comparisons for similar sites on the
open market were about €20m per acre.
Boyd Barrett said the site was worth “about
€120m and not the reported €42.5m euro that
Ronan, backed by Colony, and investment fund
reportedly paid”.
He said he had asked NAMA for confirmation
of this, but could not get that confirmation.
“If that’s true, if the comparable prices per
acre are accurate, then it means we have sold a
site worth €120m for €42.5m. That’s shocking
and the developer who has it, is the developer
who originally went into NAMA when Treasury
Holdings were taken over by NAMA”, he added.
In 2014, CIE hired Lisney to find a partner to
help it develop an office scheme behind Tara
Street train station. CIE had indicated that it was
prepared to either grant a 300-year ground lease
or take 10pc of the annual rental income from the
proposed building. Johnny
Ronan beat a number of other groups to seal
the deal for the €130m project. Ronan fronts it
but the biggest interest will be held by a joint
venture between Cardinal Capital, again, and
Wilbur Ross, now Trump’s Secretary of
Commerce.
Together they’re proposing a shocking pig of
a thing behind Kennedy’s pub near the Dart Sta
-
tion, in an area that is already the architectural
pigsty of the city centre. It will be Dublin’s tall
-
est, and worst, building at 88m – in the city
centre. Liberty hall is 59m. A panel of worthies
recruited by Ronan pronounced to no apparent
avail that the skyscraper “would need to be of
the highest design quality, a jewel on the sky-
line... to deflect criticism of the effect of the
tower on other city landmarks”. Well it isn’t and
it doesn’t. Ronan also developed the Google
Montevetro building with CIE.
In 2007, the Irish Times reported that a devel-
opment CIE was proposing at Tara Street
development would facilitate the building of a
new station concourse which would cater for
almost 15,000 passengers per hour. The trans-
port group said it needed the facility to meet the
demands of increasing public transport use
under Transport 21.
In a repeat of a development formula already
used to build an office block at Connolly in the
late 1990s, CIÉ planned to grant “air rights”
above the space it required to a private-sector
partner.
In this way the transport group would obtain
the facilities it needs while the private sector
would get development space adjoining the Irish
Financial Services Centre (IFSC).
It isn’t clear what has happened to CIE’s own
2007 proposals for Tara St, whether it intends to
develop a scheme straddling the tracks, as
always seemed a possibility, and what facilities
Dublin’s harassed commuters can expect from
developments on state-transport-company-
owned sites.
Meanwhile CIE is kick-starting a huge develop-
ment beside Connolly Station in Dublin that will
cost tens of millions of euro to complete.
It received planning permission in 2012 for a
scheme on a 3.2 hectare site that will include a
110-bedroom hotel, apartments and office
space. CIE has dubbed the project the Connolly
Quarter Development.
It has initiated a long-awaited process to hire
a property agency that will be used to help find
a development partner for the project.
“CIE is now proposing to bring the site to
market by way of development agreement,
which is a model used previously by CIE most
recently on sites at Tara Street and at Kent Sta-
tion, Cork,” the group said in a request for tender
published for the Connolly Station project.
In October 2016 Dublin City Council passed a
motion opposing the sale of CIE land at the Point
Village and 3.7 hectares at Connolly Station, pro-
posing it should be used for social housing.
It will be interesting to see who CIE chooses
at its development partner for the Connolly site.
Pig on the skyline
