Mahon tribunal may publish ‘missing’ chapter

The Mahon tribunal is to consider whether it will now publish the last remaining chapter of its report, known as the Carrickmines module.

The Carrickmines module had been withheld when the report proper was published in March 2012, pending the outcome of the court proceedings.

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment, which established the tribunal, said the Mahon tribunal itself would consider the ramifications of what happened in court yesterday over the next few days.

It was a matter for the tribunal, which examined planning corruption in Dublin, to decide when the chapter dealing with the Carrickmines module would be published. It was not a decision for the Minister for the Environment, he said.

The Carrickmines module looked at allegations that lobbyist Frank Dunlop had bribed councillors to rezone land belonging to businessman Jim Kennedy, at Carrickmines along the route of the M50.

Votes
The tribunal looked at a series of votes in the former Dublin County Council in relation to its 1993 county development plan, and leading up to the 2008 Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Plan.

The tribunal particularly investigated ownership of a 108-acre site which was sold by Bob Tracey to an Isle of Man-registered company, Paisley Park Investments, in 1991.

Jackson Way Properties subsequently claimed ownership of the land and the tribunal heard Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council had agreed to pay Jackson Way Properties €12,860,700 in 1998, for 22 acres of the lands needed for the South eastern Motorway, part of the M50. However the money has yet to be paid over.

Motorway plans
In the 1990s planners, councillors and property developers had two major elements to contend with when looking at the map of south county Dublin: the impact of the proposed motorway, and the Carrickmines Valley Sewer.

The import of both of these elements was that vast tracts of previously undeveloped land between Shankill and Ticknock would have a new road network and mains drainage. To be added to this at a later date was a campaign, since successful, to extend the planned light rail system into the area.

During the debates it quickly became clear the councillors were split on the amount of rezoning required. Generally in favour of rezoning land either for housing or industrial use were Fianna Fail and Fine Gael who held the majority on Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. Opposed to them were councillors from Democratic Left, the Progressive Democrats, the Labour Party and the Greens.

Reports of the time show Denis O’Callaghan of the Democrat Left group said the combined rezoning in the draft county development plan would see hundreds of acres rezoned over and above the amount the manager had originally considered sufficient.