Centre for Public Inquiry has ceased its work

April 11, 2006 in Planning, The State by Gavin | 3 comments

The Centre for Public Inquiry has decided to close. As reported in several papers on Monday, Fergus Flood said there was “no alternative”. There were also allegations that Treasury Holdings was threatening legal action against the CPI and its members if a report was published naming them, in relation to the Dublin Port Company (DPC) deal. The Sunday Times reported:

The CPI began an investigation into property transactions in Dublin’s docklands, including a deal involving the Dublin Port Company (DPC), and other developments including Treasury Holdings’ joint venture with CIE on Spencer Dock.

The government has already come under pressure to explain why the state-owned DPC, chaired by former councillor Joe Burke, a political associate of Bertie Ahern, the taoiseach, did not go through a tender procedure before entering into a joint venture with private operators to develop a 32-acre site.

An apparent source at the CPI also noted:

“Various interesting operations are in progress which will never see the light of day because people are afraid to be sued for libel.”

Share this:
  1. John McDermott’s avatar

    John McDermott on April 20, 2006 at 11:35 am

    The centre for public enquiry was too dangerous a body to be allowed to survive.It was a threat to the network of developers who fund Fianna Fail and who are part and parcel of the circle of favoured cronies who -along with rural landowners and farmers- are now reaping a kings ransom due to the lack of a fair and transparent policy of rezoning lands in Dublin and elswhere,during the Ray Burke/Liam Lawlor era.
    Until such time as a proper non political commission is created to oversee land rezoning this small clique (about a dozen) of very wealthy individuals will continue to control the destiny of young housebuyers throughout Leinster.
    In this instance McDowell did Ahern,s dirty work for him.
    Favour owed..?

  2. dliodor’s avatar

    dliodor on April 22, 2006 at 12:34 am

    I agree. The Centre for Public Inquiry was seen as a threat from the outset. With so many powerful people having so much to hide it’s unsurprising that the Centre would be targeted.

    A related problem is the state of Ireland’s defamation laws. We should follow the U.S. example of setting different standards for speech concerning public figures, where actual malice must be shown before the speech will be considered defamatory. In Ireland virtually anything said which cannot be proved in detail in court can be defamatory if it would tend to lower the ‘defamed’individual in the eyes of the reasonable members of the public.

    The difficulty is without a Centre for Public Inquiry how can the truth be uncovered, or facts be proved. Are ordinary individuals, going about their daily lives going to have sufficient time and resources to investigate the powers that be? The last hope for the public may in fact be blogging, but then the blogosphere is also subjected to harsh defamation laws.