CRH systemically flouts competition and company law with impunity. By Séamus Maye As I walked into the elegant Carlisle room at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire in April last for CRH plc’s latest AGM, many thoughts flashed through my head. Why am I here? Why have I been in Court with CRH plc for 27 years? Why are the political parties and regulators protecting CRH plc? Why has my family been blacklisted by the banks for over a quarter of a century? Where are the media? Then it dawned on me like an epiphany. This is no ordinary plc, this is a mafia complete with criminal structures and behaviour and the usual protection rackets with every machination of the State and the banks, working arm-in-arm to protect what I now believe to be an OCG [Organisied Criminal Group]. The gang leader, Albert Manifold delivered his usual silky-smooth State of the Nation address. But the meeting was fronted by a decidedly uncomfortable Chairman, former Bank of Ireland CEO, Richie Boucher. You see Richie was tasked with shielding the Board of Directors from my unwelcome intrusion. Richie didn’t deny any of my allegations, just an unconvincing reply, “that’s your perspective, Mr Maye”. So just how did this OCG survive and thrive? CRH plc has been Ireland’s largest company for several decades and now ranks itself as the world’s No. 2 in the construction materials sector. The company is synonymous with controversy going back at least to the 1969 takeover of Irish Cement. Then Fianna Fáil leader, Jack Lynch, had intervened to ensure that Roadstone was the preferred bidder for Irish Cement and former Taoiseach Seán Lemass was appointed as the first Chairman of the new Cement Roadstone Holdings (now CRH plc). The late Des Traynor, arguably Ireland’s most corrupt business figure, also figured on the board of the newly created monster. Don’t worry, no cross-party stone was left unturned, CRH stalwart Tony Barry had his brother Peter to call on as long-time Fine Gael Deputy leader. Labour too was captured, it was under Labour’s then Minister for the Environment, Dick Spring that the illegal cement certification scheme was introduced in March 1983. The Progressive Democrats huffed and puffed about taking down CRH. In the end, Mary Harney and Michael McDowell played a good cop/bad cop blinder and frustrated any attempt to hold CRH to account. The PDs’ betrayed everything they (apparently) stood for in their efforts to protect this leviathan. The Greens too huffed and puffed under John Gormley and his lieutenants but when they went into government in June 2007, they too back-pedalled and acquiesced in the protection racket around CRH plc. That’s all the parties that have been in power since 1969. Then Fianna Fáil leader, Jack Lynch, had intervened to ensure that Roadstone was the preferred bidder for Irish Cement and former Taoiseach Seán Lemass was appointed as the first Chairman of the new Cement Roadstone Holdings By 1973, Ireland was immersing itself in the EEC. It had to introduce several new laws and regulations in order to make Irish Law compatible with EU Competition (Antitrust) and, later, Money-Laundering, Laws. This is where it gets really sinister. Ireland brought in (on the face of it) strong competition law, starting with the 1991 Competition Act, the successor to the Restrictive Practices Act 1972, which created the Competition Authority. This was followed by the Company Law Enforcement Act 2001, which created the Office of Director of Corporate Enforcement. However, these regulators have proved chimerical. The lengths that these supposed regulators have gone to protect CRH plc is staggering. Taxpayers have been forced to pay enormous sums of money to fund these inept regulators for over fifty years. So, what of the Garda, Ireland’s primary crime busters? The author has presented files to the last four Garda Commissioners complaining about unprecedented economic crime (allegedly) committed by CRH but there has been an ongoing failure to act. Indeed a Wexford family has made very serious allegations of fraud against CRH plc but while gardaí initially got involved and acknowledged the fraud to the Somers family, the family were subsequently told by local gardaí that, “we’re killing the case”. And what of the legal system? Suffice it to say that my family’s proceedings (best known as “the Framus case” have been running for 27 years and the, almost identical Goode Concrete case for 13 years with little progress made. Add the Ballymore Properties pyrite case and we have a cumulative 50+ years of litigation against CRH plc, without a blow being landed. The above-mentioned Somers family have now spent eight years seeking effective legal representation against a background of chronic barriers to justice. Typical of the connections that would make you paranoid is the conduct of the late High Court Judge, John Cooke (RIP). In the mid-eighties, John Cooke, then a senior counsel, was engaged by Hytherm, a new entrant to the EPS (insulation panels market). John Cooke’s mission was to obtain an injunction against CRH plc, the dominant player in the EPS market, to stop its relentless predatory pricing, collusion and market-sharing. Cooke was successful with his quest. So impressed was CRH plc with Cooke’s smooth performance against it, that it signed him up to appeal the EU Commission decision of 30 November 1994. It has also been established that Judge Cooke began accumulating CRH shares in 1994 and continued doing so, at least until 2010 (that we know of). Neither Judge Cooke nor CRH plc made disclosures in relation to the Judge’s relationship with CRH. Judge Cooke went on to give three damaging judgments in the Goode Concrete case (subsequently set aside by the Supreme Court) and to strike out the Framus proceedings in their entirety in 2012. The Framus case is a spectacular example of the failure of the Irish Justice system. This can only be a failure by design on the part of the legislature with the object of protecting the defendants, CRH plc and its associates
