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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— June - July 2010
-- developer
and architect, Paul Clinton, came up with an
idea for a new street and shopping centre on
O’Connell Street centring on the former Carlton
Cinema site and brought together a group
of four partners who had varying degrees of
involvement. They developed ambitious plans
for the ‘Millennium Mall’ retail scheme stretch-
ing from the country’s main thoroughfare to
Moore Street.
►
Shortly after they developed plans for the site,
Clinton claims a powerful senior official ‘Mr A’
(whose name has been given to Village) wanted
Clinton and his partners to bring in their finan-
cial institution to confirm their funding. Clinton
arranged this meeting and directly after-
wards Mr A contacted the financial institution
directly and told them to back off as he wanted
another named developer who employed
Frank Dunlop to do this project. Clinton says
the financial institution apologised to him but
they did not want to cross the Official, Mr A, as
they had other projects that would need to go
through the process.
►
Clinton had to meet the other developers
favoured by ‘Mr A’ to appease him. Tax breaks in
excess of €,, were eventually certi-
fied by the Local Authority for Clinton’s project
alone. In retrospect, this was an extraordinary
sum – but such were the pro-developer excesses
of the last decade. The developers said it would
be impossible for him to use the tax breaks
unless they got a % stake in his project and
his tax break. They said if they were brought
on board they would look after their contacts
(assumed to be the Official). Clinton was to
be introduced to their contacts only after he
signed a partnership agreement. These devel-
opers claimed to be buying one acre of adjoin-
ing land which was not true - as Clinton and his
associates owned it. They also claimed to be
buying one acre of property beside the project.
To play for time Clinton made it a prerequisite
of the suggested partnership that they owned
both the two acres. Then official documenta-
tion was produced which showed a scheme with
which he had no involvement but which had
been prepared by these developers. It was, says
Clinton, like a bad episode of the Sopranos.
The owner of the neighbouring property was
Garrett Kelleher, now best-known as promoter
City FG leader forwards
‘Carlton site’ corruption
allegations to Gormley
inquiry
Gormley has already said he will use his
powers to investigate planning in Dublin City
michael smith
Carlton site “corruption”
of the struggling Chicago Spire – the tallest resi-
dential scheme in the world. Clinton asked him
if he really was selling to this developer. Kelleher
was adamant he was not selling to them as they
had bought a property he needed for a few hun-
dred thousand pounds but were insisting the fol-
lowing day he pay a staggering € million for it,
even though it was only five per cent of the total
site. They made a derisory offer for the rest of
his acre and when he declined they threatened
him that they could engineer a planning refusal
and that after that he would be “back on his
knees begging for the same offer”. Clinton also
says the developers boasted that they could use
their influence with Anglo-Irish bank - to pre-
vent competitors from progressing their com-
mercial schemes so the developers could then
buy the property cheap directly from Anglo after
they foreclosed on the hapless competitor. It was
now, the frustrated developer thought, more like
a bad episode of Dallas.
Clinton went into Mr A and complained
directly to the Official about the threats and
boasts, before lunch one day. He says he did
not know if they were idle but thought he should
know them anyway. Mr A told him, he says, of
the “golden rule” of Dublin’s property scene
which was that he was “protected”. Furthermore
if Clinton was not compliant their lands would
be compulsorily purchased. Immediately after
lunch a senior political figure with links to the
top of the then government contacted Clinton
saying there was no need to be upsetting Mr A.
While the conversation was initially friendly, he
eventually warned Clinton he was playing with
fire and if he “knew how this town really worked”
he would realise the danger he was in.
Clinton claims that things were so bad at the
time that a ministerial adviser was informed
of the serious allegations, but no action was
taken on foot of another developer’s complaint.
Clinton had been interviewed by the Ministerial
Adviser in connection with the other develop-
er’s Complaint. While Clinton agreed to come
forward as a witness, no official ever got back
to him and the person who had made the com-
plaint was just given the complaint back and told
to “go home and await further instructions”, if
he wanted to do business in this town.
He says that another well-connected politi-
cal figure offered him a stake in land that was
owned by the State if he agreed to share the
€,, tax break and accelerated
allowances available for the O’Connell Street
scheme. He was advised by a senior political fig-
ure to employ PR advisor, Frank Dunlop, to do
the PR for his project, just like a neighbouring
developer had. Clinton claims that, when asked
why he was being used for PR when the neigh-
bour already had a PR firm commissioned, Frank
Dunlop informed him, that he really would not
be doing any “PR” but would just ensure the right
people would let the development happen.
In late a compulsory purchase order
was placed on the Carlton site after Clinton
told Mr A that the development would be
going ahead without his friends having a share
of the tax break. This led to protracted liti-
gation. Clinton believes the CPO was used as
an instrument to prevent the developing the
site because of the earlier refusal to “Share
the €,, certified tax break” with
the official’s friends and pay what he says was
described to him as “dropsey” to certain influ-
ential figures. He got what was known as the
“Gilmartin treatment”.
In Councillor Gerry Breen, leader of
Fine Gael on Dublin City Council and a few other
City Councillors, decided to find out what was
causing this impasse. Paul Clinton has described
how the official files were incorrect and in the
mid s he had proof that confidential files
indicating which parts of
Dublin would be granted
lucrative tax designation
under the Urban Renewal
scheme were availa-
ble to selected people
before they were publicly
announced. These were
sent at the time by reg-
istered post to Clinton’s
Solicitor, pre-dating the
public launch of the tax
breaks.
Many years later, after
Official A was no longer in
the same position of influ-
ence, the land was bought
by another developer, Chartered Land, which
is currently progressing a major retail scheme
on the land. Chartered Land was not involved
in the and incidents described by
Clinton.
Councillor Breen has forwarded the alle-
gations to Minister Gormley and has called
for an inquiry into corruption in the original
O’Connell St scheme. In March, Minister for the
Environment John Gormley announced that he
would be launching investigations into a number
of planning decisions around the country fol-
lowing complaints received by his department.
Several complaints have already been made
about planning in Dublin City, including by An
Taisce and the National Graves Association.
Clinton has confirmed that he is happy to assist
in any Inquiry.
“The developers also boasted
that they could use their
influence with Anglo-Irish
bank to prevent competitors
from completing their
commercial schemes”
the front of the Carlton site
