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    Resignation After Nepotism Questions

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    The crisis at the Kildare Wicklow Education and Training Board (KWETB) continues to deepen. The newly appointed investigator into alleged improper procurement and other practices at the agency recently heard claims concerning safety issues, potentially affecting hundreds of school children. As reported in Village in October, the former president of Sligo Institute of Technology, Richard Thorn, was appointed to investigate a series of issues which arose following an investigation by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) into spending and procurement at the KWETB. Among the concerns raised by the C&AG were a number related to construction projects, including large school buildings and extensions, rental properties, and the use of vehicles. The KWETB spends around €116m annually and is responsible for the operation of many primary and secondary schools across the two counties as well as providing further education and training courses. Announcing the terms of reference for the Thorn inquiry, education minister, Richard Bruton, said in late September that it was to examine “public procurement, usage and disposal of assets and propriety matters” at the KWETB. Thorn was asked to identify any “lacunae, inconsistencies, or insufficient clarity” in the responses by the board to questions posed by the C&AG, including potential conflicts of interest in procurement, asset disposal or leasing that concerned companies identified in the audit. Soon after Thorn’s appointment, the chief executive of the KWETB, Seamus Ashe, announced his retirement from the position while questions were raised about the role of a company in which his daughter, Jennifer, is a director. The company rented a property in Naas from the board in recent years. The rental arrangements are among the issues mentioned in Thorn’s terms of reference. The crisis deepened in early November after Thorn was informed of serious questions raised about the quality of some of the construction work carried out in at least one school in County Kildare. It became the subject of a hastily convened meeting involving senior government officials and some building and other companies at the Department of Education on 6 November last. This followed a High Court hearing the previous Friday where one builder, Townmore Ltd, sought to force a company, Drumderry Ltd, which provided materials used in the construction of an extension at St Conleth’s secondary school in Newbridge, County Kildare to certify the quality of the work done. Drumderry supplied concrete for walls, beams, columns, and floors to Townmore but refused to issue certificates stating that the work had been carried out to the accepted standards. Among other complaints, Sam Deacon of Drumderry has raised questions about how the headed notepaper of his company was used to issue certificates without his knowledge, in recent years. As Village went to press, the High Court action had been adjourned for a week. Over recent weeks, issues were also raised about the integrity of, and procedures involved in, recent meetings of the board of the KWETB to discuss the growing controversy. Councillor Fiona McLoughlin Healy, formerly of Fine Gael, opposed a decision by the chair and vice chair of the board, Councillors Brendan Weld and Jim Ruttle, respectively, to hold meetings in private on at least two occasions. Councillor McLoughlin Healy has publicly asked for Weld, Ruttle and the corporate services manager of the KWETB, Mary Dillon, to step down from their positions pending completion of the Thorn investigation. Following a board meeting on 11 October she said in a press statement: “I have serious concerns that a false narrative is being constructed in relation to the board’s response to the investigation of the KWETB by the Department of Education. As a board member I am concerned that despite repeated requests we have not been provided with all of the legal advice that has been made available to the Chair and the Vice-Chair for and on behalf of the board… I have also had access to a document which is evidence of a serious and malicious misrepresentation of a private meeting (of the board) called by the Chair and the Vice Chair on September 19th. Although the meeting did not go ahead because the Chair and Vice Chair had acted outside their powers by calling a secret meeting, that is not what is documented in the memo”. She continued: “The Minutes Secretary is also the Corporate Affairs Manager and has a senior management role in relation to one of the main areas being investigated. Chairs have signing authority relating to the area in question. We as a board have a duty to ensure that not only conflicts of interest but any perceptions of conflicts of interest are managed. Let me be clear: I am casting no aspersions on the Corporate Affairs Manager, the Chair or the Vice Chair. It is in everyone’s best interests including theirs to ask that they be relieved of their duties around any discussion in relation to the investigation, given the potential for conflicts of interest”. The allegations of inadequate certification of construction work at schools and other public buildings have also dragged others into the controversy. These embrace some involved in providing architectural and engineering consultancy to the building companies involved.   Frank Connolly

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    More On Moran/Nomura

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    One of the intriguing characters in the story of ‘NAMA-land’, the title of the book I have written which has just been published by Gill Books, is the former general secretary of the Department of Finance, John Moran. The Limerick man was appointed to the second most senior position in the Irish civil service by then finance minister and fellow County Limerick man, Michael Noonan in May 2012. His appointment was welcomed at the time as a breath of fresh air, given that he had only joined the department a couple of years earlier. It was widely reported that his most recent business experience was in running a juice bar in the Languedoc region of France, where he was also renovating an old property. Not so well reported at the time were questions raised in the Dáil by Sinn Féin spokesman, Pearse Doherty, about Moran’s time with Swiss insurance company, Zurich Capital Markets (ZCM), where he was US-based chief executive from 1997 to 2005. As Doherty pointed out, ZCM was fined $16m, in May 2007, by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after it found that the insurance company had “provided financing, aided and abetted four hedge funds that were carrying out schemes to defraud mutual funds that prohibited market timing” and “employed various deceptive tactics to invest in mutual funds”. ZCM was an affiliate of Zurich Global Investments LLC and an indirect subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services, the Swiss holding company. Not much notice was paid to Doherty’s remarks following the somewhat surprise appointment of Moran, except that the deputy was expelled from the Dáil for what the then ceann comhairle, Sean Barrett, described as “attempted character assassination”. After settling in to his new position, Moran was an enthusiastic supporter, with Noonan, of the rapid disposal of NAMA assets and in encouraging global or ‘vulture’ investment funds in their acquisition from 2013. As has since been revealed, he met with a number of the funds which arrived in Ireland since then and purchased huge bundles of heavily discounted, distressed assets from NAMA, only to flip them within months, for much higher margins than achieved by the agency. He was involved in designing some of the tax-efficient incentives which Noonan introduced during his term as finance minister, some of which are under scrutiny again, following the most recent revelations on tax avoidance in the Paradise Papers involving Apple and other multi-nationals. In February 2013, Moran told the REIT Forum conference in Dublin, a gathering of 500 property investors, owners and auctioneers, of his “ambitions to make Ireland a base for international REITS (real estate investment trusts) in much the same way as Dublin is now an international centre for aircraft leasing”. Among those who spoke at the conference was the then head of asset recovery at NAMA, John Mulcahy, who left the agency later that year to join one of Ireland’s leading commercial property investors, IPUT. Another former NAMA executive, Kevin Nowlan, whose father Bill had helped devise the REIT legislation introduced by the then government, went on to form Hibernia REIT in October 2013, less than a year after leaving the agency. Hibernia is now one of the country’s leading purchasers of commercial properties in Dublin, including some previously on the distressed loan books controlled by NAMA. Last year, Moran was reported in Village as saying that he could not recall whether he attended a meeting between Noonan and senior Cerberus representatives, including former US treasury secretary, John Snow, in late March 2014. The meeting took place on the day before the final tenders were submitted to NAMA for the agency’s entire Northern Ireland loan book, known as Project Eagle. Noonan was criticised in a report by the Public Accounts Committee of the Oireachtas earlier this year for his participation at the meeting which was described as “not procedurally appropriate”. In fact, the records and minutes since released and naming those finance department officials attending the meeting do not include Moran. Within weeks, Cerberus emerged as the successful bidder and paid £1.2bn (€1.6 bn) for the portfolio. Some £730m, or almost two-thirds of the monies paid by Cerberus through its subsidiary, Promontoria Eagle, for Project Eagle was lent by Nomura, a Japanese Bank. After just two years as secretary general with the department, Moran retired from the position in May 2014. In November 2015, Nomura announced that Moran had been appointed as an advisor to the bank. He lobbied Noonan and finance department officials on behalf of Nomura during 2016. There is nothing illicit, improper or unsurprising about any senior civil servant going on to provide consultancy and other expertise to local and international companies following retirement. Nevertheless, it is fascinating to follow the global web of networking in the world of high finance.   John Moran

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    Think [and consider the data]

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    A CLEARER PICTURE is emerging of the state of the housing sector. A number of reports and newly-compiled statistics point to a heavily strained system, struggling to provide even modest levels of supply and affordability. Most households cannot afford a new home within reasonable commuting distance of Dublin, without first stumping up a significant deposit. Policies aimed at reducing building costs by either increasing building heights, or reducing standards, are ineffective and don’t facilitate the common good. And only ten local authority homes were built in Dublin the first half of this year. What does this crisis look like? Here are some figures that help point the way. 1. HOUSING SUPPLY Due to inaccurate official housing statistics, Goodbody has instigated an independent audit of house-building output. Its ‘BER House-building Tracker’ is based on new Building Energy Ratings, certification of which have been a legal requirement for all dwellings since 2013. By this measure, 6,447 new homes have been completed in the year to date, less than half the official Department of Housing figure, which is based on ESB connections. The pace of building is increasing, rising 86% year-on-year in September, though it remains well below official estimates. In total, fewer than 8,000 new homes will be built this year. 80% of these new dwellings are houses, and fewer than 1000 apartments have been completed this year. Seven out of ten new dwellings, and most apartments, are located in the Greater Dublin Area, the ‘recovery’ evidently being restricted to the capital. 2. HOUSE PRICES The Central Statistics Office’s Residential Property Price Indicator Index is an accurate record of house prices. It confirms that government policy has facilitated a remarkable recovery in new home prices. In 2010, the average new home was 25% cheaper than the average second-hand house price. By 2016, the average new home was 15% more expensive, at €450,274. The price of second-hand homes in Dublin has increased at a much slower rate – an average of 11% per year, to €389,879 by 2016. By last year, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown had seen new home prices double in six years to €618,026, almost 14 times the average full-time wage. 3. APARTMENT PRICES & AFFORDABILITY A report in October by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI), ‘The Real Costs of New Apartment Delivery’, confirmed what the industry has known for years – new apartments are severely unaffordable. A combined household salary of €87,000 is required to afford the cheapest low-density two-bed apartments in suburban Dublin. The average sale price across the city is €435,500, almost ten times the average full-time wage. Prospective owners must be in the top 20% household-earnings bracket. The report raised a number of interesting facts. Increasing height – an official preoccupation, actually drives prices up. Reduced standards like smaller floor areas and reduced lift cores – an industry preoccupation, do little to reduce the ‘affordability gap’. Site values are the biggest cost, and a significant driver of price inflation. Land values and developers’ profits comprise 35% of sales prices. 4. SOCIAL HOUSING Rebuilding Ireland’s ‘Social Housing Completions Report 2017’ catalogues an expanding ‘pipeline’ of almost 700 projects, with the capacity to provide more than 11,000 potential social homes. However, actual output is far less impressive than official inputs. Local authorities built 75 social housing units nationwide in the first six months of this year. In addition, 380 social homes were completed nationwide by ‘approved housing bodies’ (AHBs) and voluntary co-ops, organisations that heavily rely on voluntary efforts and fund-raising, in addition to state funding. Of the 120,598 people on housing waiting lists nationwide, 40,207 are in the four Dublin council areas. Ten local authority homes were built in Dublin the first half of 2017. Dublin city council has the largest population, and the highest number of homeless families, but it built no social housing. Cork city council, Kildare county council and Galway city council did not build a single local authority home between them, despite having housing waiting lists of 6,005, 6,869, and 4,095 respectively. 21 local authorities built no social housing in the first six months of 2017. CONCLUSIONS There are 240 new households availing of state rent assistance every week. Approximately €730m will be spent on state rent assistance, for 96,000 households, this year. By 2018 this will increase to €900m for 110,000 families. Rising levels of homelessness have been well documented, and are truly alarming. There are only 1000 rental properties available in Dublin, and 3,200 nationwide. The lack of supply continues to pressurise the rental sector, and lower-to-middle income households and tenants in arrears are especially vulnerable. Local authorities own enough residential- zoned land to build 37,000 dwellings, yet at current rates just 300 local authority homes will be completed this year. Considering the continued reliance on the private sector, low levels of new house-building, the lack of an affordable housing scheme, and low permanent social-housing provision, the situation for families on more modest incomes will remain perilously difficult for the foreseeable future.   Mailíosa (Mel) Reynolds is a Registered Architect and Certified Passive House Designer

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    Boiling Over

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    This March marked the 40th anniversary of Mary Boyle’s disappearance. Ever since she vanished on St. Patrick’s weekend in 1977, a veil of secrecy has shrouded the case of the Donegal schoolgirl who is Ireland’s longest and youngest missing person. There are few scandals that embarrass the establishment more, not least because of the sinister role played by senior political, Garda and media figures in suppressing the truth about what happened to the six-year-old. Yet despite a virtual blackout by the mainstream media on all of the astonishing new revelations in the case, the lid is slowly being lifted on this sad and sordid story, and the public is hungry for justice. My 2016 documentary ‘Mary Boyle: The Untold Story’ has been viewed almost 600,000 times on YouTube. A recent petition to the Donegal coroner’s office requesting an inquest was signed by thousands in a matter of hours. There is growing frustration and fury that justice has not been done and little doubt that the case involves a cover-up of enormous magnitude. Few believe the story as it was spun in 1977 when Mary went missing during a visit to her grandparents’ home in Cashelard, Ballyshannon. It is implausible that a little girl, who was born in Birmingham, could simply vanish without trace on an isolated farm while in the company of at least 10 members of her family. A ‘Cold Case’ review, set up in the days immediately after the documentary’s release, has resulted in nothing almost a year and a half on, and there is no conclusion in sight. It appears now that this review – one of several that have led to nothing – was established to placate public outrage over allegations contained in the film, especially those made by retired gardaí who claim that Fianna Fáil politician Sean McEniff tried to stop their investigation in its tracks. Expert legal opinion suggests the Gardaí have ample evidence to make charges, yet nobody has been arrested. The last person known to have seen Mary, her uncle and local Fianna Fáil stalwart Gerry Gallagher, has given several unconvincing and inconsistent accounts of what happened the day she went missing. His claim that his niece simply vanished into thin air after accompanying him along a laneway on his farm holds no credibility. Gallagher’s failure to admit when initially asked that Mary had been with him is suspicious at the very least. Statements given to gardaí at the time by him and certain other family members are laden with contradictions. Some officers who were first on the scene that day say they are in no doubt Gerry Gallagher was responsible for Mary’s disappearance. Retired sergeant Martin Collins describes one encounter with Gallagher, where Collins put it to him that he was responsible for his niece’s disappearance. Gallagher, he says, sat in silence and made no attempt to rebuke it. Collins, who was initially refused entry to the cottage by the family, also claims he was told numerous times by Ann Boyle – Mary’s mother and Gerry Gallagher’s sister – that she believed Gallagher was responsible. Mary’s twin sister Ann Doherty and country singer Margo O’Donnell, a distant cousin, say Mrs Boyle told them the same story. Mrs Boyle appears to have now retracted this belief, and says the matter should be addressed privately not publicly. She has been scathing about the justice campaign for her daughter, and has told Donegal coroner Dr Denis McCauley she does not want an inquest into her death, an astonishing position but one that the coroner supports, depriving Mary, her twin sister and the public of a key mechanism for justice and closure in the case. Sergeant Collins also alleges that another close relation of Mary came to him in tears at Ballyshannon station in the days after her disappearance, repeating the claim that he believed Gallagher was responsible. Retired detective Aidan Murray, one of the lead Gardaí in the original ‘investigation’ supports Collins’ theories. He claims that during an interview with Gallagher, he was on the brink of getting a confession when he got a ‘nudge’ under the table from his superior officer who ordered Murray to leave the room and get water for the suspect. More disturbingly, both officers say they are in no doubt Mary was sexually assaulted before her death. Ann Doherty makes the same claim and says Mary was going to blow the whistle on the alleged abuse and had to be silenced. The retired Gardaí also allege that Fianna Fáil’s longest-serving councillor, the late Sean McEniff, made a phone call to Ballyshannon Garda station ordering that none of the Gallagher family were to be made suspects in the case. Shortly before his death earlier this year, McEniff denied their claim yet Aidan Murray, the former head of Special Branch in the area, has stated on camera: “I know that as a result of that phone call, certain people were not allowed to be interviewed. It was all hands off them and we were to look somewhere else”. Given the power McEniff wielded in almost every aspect of Donegal life, there is little doubt his intervention could have derailed the investigation. His legacy of corruption is notorious and was well documented in a recent obituary of him in Village magazine, not least because of his close relationships with Gardaí whom he seems to have been able to order around with impunity, especially where his illegal gaming operation in Bundoran was concerned. A 1985 RTÉ documentary ‘Law and Order in Donegal’, reveals the control McEniff had over local superintendent Dom Murray, who was in charge of the Mary Boyle investigation and who told a number of lies about the case in media interviews through the years. It offers a damning insight into the incestuous relationship between Fianna Fáil and the Gardaí, which has been used to protect the party from scandal on numerous occasions, not least in the aftermath of the Fr Niall Molloy murder in Offaly in 1985. Gerry Gallagher

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