October 28, 2008

Don't Feed The Worms At Dublin City Council!

Feeding The Worms at Dublin City Council Creates A Monopoly to Benefit Foreign Corporations.







Don't Feed The Worms At Dublin City Council!

Should you immediately switch your bin collection to Panda? If you do nothing are you supporting the worms promoting DCC's Waste-To-Toxins incinerator which will degrade health all across Dublin?

Should you immediately remove all your assets from Anglo-Irish Bank? This includes cash and pension plan investments. If you do nothing are you supporting the worms wrecking Sandymount Strand and Dublin Bay?

Should you immediately tell BIFFO and John Gormley not to use taxpayer assets to bail out Anglo-Irish Bank? If you do nothing the increased charges on Ireland's National Debt will exceed the supposed cost savings gouged from old people's medical cards. That's if BIFFO doesn't turn Ireland-Inc into Iceland-Under-IMF-Administration-Inc.

  • Who benefits from the apparently legal Directorship and Consulting Doors Revolving between DCC, DDDA, Covanta, Energy Answers, EPA-Ireland and Anglo-Irish Bank?
  • So far, DCC has spent in excess of €19,000,000 to promote a one-sided case benefiting foreign corporations in the Waste-To-Toxins business. Cynically, no money has been available to provide balanced public information. Who is working for the taxpayers in Dublin?

  • DCC's competitor Panda said the main reason the city council wants to re-monopolise the collection system is because DCC has entered into a contract to provide 320,000 tonnes of rubbish per year for the planned municipal waste incinerator at Poolbeg in Dublin.


Monopolists Planning Dublin Bay

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Council accused over waste collection services

MARY CAROLAN, Last Updated: Tuesday, October 28, 2008, 19:09

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/1028/breaking72.htm

A waste collection company has claimed before the High Court that Dublin City Council is seeking to “re-monopolise” the household collection service in the capital.

The claim was made by counsel for Nurendale Ltd, trading as Panda Waste Services, Rathdrinagh, Beauparc Business Park, Navan, Co Meath.

Panda is seeking a court order to overturn the Council’s decision altering the existing waste permit regime, under which some private collectors operate in the market, to one where collection is carried out by the local authority or a single collector appointed by the council.

Panda claims moves to alter the current regime is an abuse of the Dublin local councils’ dominant market position. The company is also seeking damages.

Opening the case, Martin Hayden SC, for the company said there was a deliberate decision by the city council to “re-monopolise” the waste collection market.

Up to 1996, all household waste in Dublin had been collected by directly employed local authority workers. After 1996, a licensing system was introduced allowing private firms to operate. A number of such operators, including Panda, got involved.

Mr Hayden said the main reason the city council wants to re-monopolise the collection system is because it has entered into a contract to provide 320,000 tonnes of rubbish per year for the planned municipal waste incinerator at Poolbeg in Dublin.

The company is asking the court to judicially review a decision by the council, on behalf of all of the city’s four local authorities, to vary the Dublin waste management plan. Panda claims the decision is essentially an attempt to prohibit the collection of waste by the private sector.

Mr Hayden said comments made in correspondence by assistant city council manager, Matt Twomey, showed that it was the intended there would be no private operators in the market.

The city council says that it is its intention that collection of household waste will be by a single operator, either the local authority, or as a result of a tendering process.

Panda Waste was set up in 1990 and employs 250 people. It has an annual turnover of around €50m and some 28,000 domestic customers in Dublin. In 2005, the company implemented a business plan in which it focused on the domestic waste collection market, particularly in Dublin. It competed in Dun Laoghaire, Fingal and South Dublin Council areas and bought the Smurfit Recycling plant in Ballymount.

The case before Mr Justice Liam McKechnie continues.

© 2008 irishtimes.com

October 23, 2008

Planners 'Inappropriate Links' with Developers.

Dermot Desmond's Allegations

(Paraphrased - see full newspaper reports below)

  • local authority attempted to change the City Development Plan "by the back door".
  • "development in Dublin is developer-led ..."
  • Dublin City Council has facilitated developers by changing planning law (aka 'zoning').
  • Dublin City Council was trying to get around the development plan.
  • "evidence of inappropriate links between planning officials and developers emerged before An Bord Pleanala"
  • City Architect Jim Barrett was acting outside the development plan
____________________________________________

What bags? What Baggage Charges?
Does O'Leary Fly bags to The Isle of Man?
____________________________________________

Another Revolving Door

"A serious conflict of interest arose when Jim Barrett, recently retired City Architect, arrived to give evidence as part of Sean Dunne's project team. Jim Barrett had attended pre-application consultations with the developers,"
  • Jim Barrett, recently retired City Architect
  • Jim Barrett gave evidence as part of Developer's project team.
I'm With Permanent-TSB - I'm Not with Aggro-Irish Bankers. Honest.


__________________
Desmond accuses Dublin's planners of 'inappropriate links' with the city's developers
By Cormac Murphy,
Thursday October 23 2008

One of the country's leading businessmen has written a scathing letter to Dublin's city manager slamming "inappropriate links" between council planners and developers.

And tycoon Dermot Desmond referred in his letter to meetings between city planners and developer Sean Dunne over the latter's skyscraper proposal for Ballsbridge.

Mr Desmond also criticised what he termed a five-year effort by Dublin City Council "to set the stage for intensive development" in the Dublin 4 suburb.

This "concerted" bid included proposals for landmark buildings, new apartment guidelines and a paper on high-rise development.

And he told the capital's top council official, John Tierney, that the local authority attempted to change the City Development Plan "by the back door" to facilitate builders.

Addressed to Mr Tierney, the letter was also sent to Environment Minister John Gormley and Dublin city councillors.

High-rise

One such councillor, Tom Stafford (Fianna Fail), told the Herald he agreed with much of what Mr Desmond said, in particular that the council is intent on following a high-rise policy.

Mr Desmond wrote: "I am on record, on a number of occasions, expressing my concern that development in Dublin is developer-led instead of being determined on proper planning and design principles."

He said "we now have real evidence that this is the case" following the recent Bord Pleanala hearings into Mr Dunne's plan for the Jurys/ Berkeley Court site and developer Ray Grehan's proposal for an adjacent piece of land.

"The sequence of events which unfolded demonstrated how Dublin City Council has facilitated the desire of developers to change the zoning, density and height guidelines applicable to Ballsbridge sites purchased for record amounts," Mr Desmond stated.

He added: "Arising from the An Bord Pleanala hearings, we now have copies of minutes of pre-application consultations between the developers and Dublin City Council.

"Clear markers were given at such meetings that parts of the proposed developments did not fall within the development plan. So the developers should have been asked to drastically reduce and alter their schemes.

"However, the worrying aspect is that planning officials at Dublin City Council were instead looking at other policy initiatives which would get around the development plan and facilitate development of the kind proposed for this triangle site in Ballsbridge."

He told the city manager "all of these pre-application consultations and the drafting of favourable policy papers ... took place on your watch".

Mr Desmond said "evidence of inappropriate links between planning officials and developers emerged before An Bord Pleanala".

"A serious conflict of interest arose when Jim Barrett, recently retired City Architect, arrived to give evidence as part of Sean Dunne's project team. Jim Barrett had attended pre-application consultations with the developers," he wrote.

A spokeswoman for the council said Mr Tierney would not be commenting as he is on leave and has not seen the letter.

- Cormac Murphy

_____________________

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/shockwaves-of-desmond-letter-start-council-row-1511444.html

He said that at the oral hearing it transpired Mr Dunne's architect "had brought models of a 32-storey tower, 37-storey tower and 40-storey tower to a meeting at Dublin City Council".

"Jim Barrett, city architect, suggested that the 37-storey was more 'elegant'," Mr Desmond said. He then "apparently made further suggestions concerning appropriate heights for other buildings which were ultimately reflected in the planning application".

Mr Desmond added: "While ultimately the planning authority refused permission for the 37-storey tower, it is clear that Jim Barrett was acting outside the development plan when even considering such tall buildings."

October 21, 2008

Medical Cards & Incineration

Who Needs a Medical Card When They Will Be Killed Prematurely?

The planned Dublin Bay Incinerator at Poolbeg will cause up to 300 premature deaths per year (1). Perhaps that means an extra three thousand sick people per year.

Boston, not Berlin.

With 3,000 extra sick people why not sneak in Not-Universal American style health care! That adds to GNP, will increase growth, and will pull The Galway Tent out of the recession.

The Bush controlled US Environmental Protection Agency values Human Resources at about $7.22 million(2). So let's get rid of health care for old people, they have no economic value apart from their life-time savings.


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  1. Passively confirmed by Dick Roach (Dail Ref: 12568/07). http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/04/incineration-amsterdam-example-300.html

  2. "By reducing the value of human life, which is really a devious way of cooking the books, the perceived benefits of cleaning up the air seem less," said Frank O'Donnell of the District-based group Clean Air Watch. http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/07/cosmic-markdown-epa-says-life-is-worth.html

  3. A small incinerator in rural Tippereary was stopped by Bord Pleanala after lawyers for John Magnier’s Coolmore group had argued that the facility would be prejudicial to animal health.

  4. Ringsend Death Risk is 20-80 Times Higher With Incinerator.

http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/05/ringsend-death-risk-already-10-20-times.html


___________________


Health Hazards From Chemicals Are Not Known

_________________________


Incinerator Will Increase Deaths By
Twenty To Eighty Times.

______________________________________

Environment Minister Passively Confirms 300 Deaths Per Year.
_________________________________________________________

October 15, 2008

DDDA's Vision For Sandymount

DDDA's Vision For Sandymount

Image Inspired By London Independent


_____________________________________________
  • They are Kremlinesque, the most secretive communications operation I have ever encountered. They try to kill stories and suppress the flow of information to the public. They obfuscate.
  • Their annual report fails to give any information about the directors -- all political appointees. Names only. They could all be escaped convicts, hermaphrodites or illiterates for all we are told.
  • Its contacts with the public (whom it is meant to protect) are Orwellian.

[Oct 2008: Banks given €480,000,000,000 protection money; medical cards used for funding].


Q: An Irish Senator wrote the above comments. About who?

  • Dublin Docklands Development Authority?

  • Environment Protection Agency ?

  • An Bord Pleanala ?

  • Anglo-Irish Bank?

  • Dublin City Council?

  • Financial Regulator?


A: Pussycat Paddy is for the birds


October 12, 2008

Wrecking Sandymount: Fabrizia Lawyer Supports More Taxpayer Money for Banks?

In a boghole in Clara, BIFFO does the singing while another lawyer does the ballroom dancing - all to the tune of The Galway Tent.

Another lawyer for Fabrizia(a) seems to be promoting the patriotic Galway Tent agenda wherein even more money should be grabbed from taxpayers and given to those patriots, the honest banks of Ireland. This is cash beyond the €480,000,000,000 bailout.

How can it go back ? They're so greedy they actually believe our money is rightfully their money?

A certain (City) fell among Thieves-- And the Green Party Priests passed by on the other side.


The Big Lie here is The First Time Buyer, a species of spin peculiar to Ireland. The First Time Buyer is usually accompanied by The Young Couple spin, another politically-empathetic creature also peculiar to Ireland. Using the First Time Buyer spiel The Galway Tent preys on The Young Couple by keeping house prices above the market clearing price. Thus The First Time Buyer spiel is a fine tactic for putting taxpayer cash into Galway Tent pockets. A not insignificant side-benefit to The Galway Tent is the controlling 40-year ring put through the noses of the targeted Young Couple

The fact that the taxes for The First Time Buyer game will be extracted from Medical Cards, Schools, Farmers and soon-to-be ex-Dell and ex-Waterford Glass employees is omitted. After all isn't it the Developers' and Banks' money that these unpatriotic taxpayers are clutching in their greedy little hands?

(a) Fabrizia seems to be a special purpose entity or some form of corporation apparently controlled by an Irish developer named Liam Carroll. Fabrizia occupies formerly public land on Sandymount Strand.


Vested Interests – Government & DDDA.

In Tony-Soprano-speak(b) the Irish Glass Bottle (IGB) site is DDDA's Spec House. The lawyer for Fabrizia quantifies the Government's vested interest in property development at 13.5%, just from VAT. So for the proposed IGB flats the Government's vested interest from VAT would be about €270 Million. According to the dogs in the street the parties involved will most likely be driven by Revolving Doors now that brown envelopes are too visible.

And don't forget DDDA's vested interest in Becbay and the conflict of interest where DDDA decides on planning permission for property for which it shares ownership, using taxpayer cash. In June 2008, DDDAs expensively hired "public consultation" reps denied any such conflict. These brass necks have since been contradicted by a judge.

Through the vehicle of the DDDA, John Gormley excludes the public by bypassing An Bord Pleanala and thus uses large sums of taxpayer cash to spin Big Lies and to selectively withhold information, allegedly. This is the process used by Dublin City Council for the proposed Dublin Bay Incinerator at Poolbeg, allegedly.


(b) Not Tony Orlando, New Jersey CEO of Covanta, a foreign corporation contracted to run DCC's Waste-To-Toxics incinerator at Poolbeg.

Who Stole Sandymount Strand?

The Fabrizia site sits on Sandymount Strand and on special nature reserves. The area has been cynically degraded by a combination of obviously honest revolving-door officials, including the obviously honest EPA who've worked wonders in Cork Harbour.


The large section of Sandymount public beach occupied by Fabrizia
was acquired from the public by magic in a possibly totally legal process, a murky process that highly embarrasses the former Minister of Finance – a government minister whose brother was the head of AIB and has now moved through the Revolving Doors to be ESB chairman (ESB is possibly the largest generator of health degrading pollution across Dublin from Poolbeg & across Ireland from Moneypoint).

In the past six months both the Fabrizia and the IGB sites seem to have fenced off substantial additional portions of public land. Is this legal? What lawyers did they consult? Will they be fined an unprecedented €1,000 with no jail time? Or are they relying on the DDDA to do a maneuver similar to the action deemed as outside the law by the courts at the site for a new Anglo-Irish Bank HQ on the river Liffey?


___________________________________________

[Following the collapse of the Galway Tent property pyramid scheme the lawyer organisation mentioned below seems to be about to fire a large number of staff [Sunday Tribune, Nov 2, 2008]. This organisation has plans to move into the property for which DDDA seems to have acted with a certain bias, apparently in contravention of the law. Future neighbours would be Anglo-Irish Bank, financial facilitators for the IGB site on Sandymount Strand, right beside the Fabrizia site on the foreshore].

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Banks and Government culpable for super-heated property market

Crisis closes one door but opens another for legal firm

Lawyer Rory O'Donnell, chairman of O'Donnell Sweeney Eversheds, says he cannot understand the figures paid for some sites

By John Mulligan

Thursday October 09 2008

It's little wonder that Rory O'Donnell doesn't look his 69 years. The chairman of law firm O'Donnell Sweeney Eversheds is a keen and frequent ballroom dancer, but while that might help keep him trim it's no doubt a tougher prospect keeping business in tip top shape as the economic crisis continues to maul markets.

Counting some of the country's biggest developers including Liam Carroll and Joe Moran among the firm's clients, Mr O'Donnell, who originally hails from Killenard in Co Laois and founded the law firm 40 years ago, admits that it's much tougher for builders to secure financing to complete the type of deals that just a couple of years ago banks might have signed off over lunch.

He welcomes the Government's decision to stump up a €400bn guarantee for bank deposits, but says that the wheels of industry need further grease to keep the economy ticking over.

Not least of course, because that would ensure the law firm's 200 or so staff -- as well as its clients, are kept busy.

Schadenfreude

With undoubted schadenfreude in some circles that, at last, developers are feeling pain, Mr O'Donnell believes that their time will come again, albeit without the frenzied pace of construction that was the hallmark of the past decade.

He also admits that things had in some cases got way out of hand.

"I couldn't understand some of the figures that were being paid for some sites," he says, when asked if some valuations, in the capital in particular, should have rung alarm bells.

"It was hard to see how those multiples could have been arrived at without really stretching the envelope in relation to planning."

He acknowledges that property is a cyclical sector, and says that the question is not if the market will recover, but when.

But when the history books are written, will the finger of blame for the explosion and implosion of Ireland's property market be levelled squarely at the banks?

"The banks were all afraid of losing market share," he believes.

"They clearly contributed to the situation by wanting to do that. But to be fair, nobody anticipated a meltdown of the banking sector."

The banks, says Mr O'Donnell, need to stop chasing people they've lent money to while turmoil persists.

"They should carry those that deserved to be carried until they can sort themselves out. Then the banks can let the chips fall where they may."

Large developers, with so much of the banks' money tied up in schemes whose medium-term prospects look pretty grim, have so far largely escaped the hangman.

Just how long that will last is, at this stage, anyone's guess.

But equally culpable, it can be argued, is the Government itself, which effectively left the super-heated property market virtually unchecked.

It ultimately found itself in a position where it couldn't seriously tinker with stamp duty rates as there was the clear likelihood that any savings aimed at home buyers would have evaporated if builders raised prices in response. Mr O'Donnell recalls speaking to one civil servant who told him that the Government perceived the aim in relation to stamp duty as akin to "plucking feathers from a goose with the least amount of hissing".

It worked for a time, with what is effectively a tax on moving home swelling the Exchequer's coffers.

But just about everyone is hissing now.

With the budget deficit headed for €10bn this year, Mr O'Donnell points out that the Government should have a vested interest in trying to kick-start the property market as soon as possible.

"Something should be done at the bottom end of the market to encourage first-time buyers," he says.

"That would allow money to flow back to the banks and to the Government."

Mr O'Donnell points out that on a housing scheme that might have cost €100m to develop and which remains unsold, the builder will already have reclaimed the VAT.

"Effectively, the Government has a 13.5pc interest in that development until its sold, and that's a sizeable chunk.

There are many multiples of that around the country in completed and unsold developments so the Government needs to get the train restarted." But that train is undoubtedly still at the platform and the boiler's bust.

Developers, meanwhile, have already been drawing down the shutters in an effort to ride out the hurricane.

As far back as 18 months ago, according to Mr O'Donnell, many developers were already effectively closed down.

"Others are sharpening their pencils and trying to sell in a very difficult market, while very few are thinking big unless they think the end result has some reasonable prospect of selling."

Clients of O'Donnell Sweeney Eversheds -- who extend beyond property into areas such as M&A, restructuring and intellectual property, have largely been keeping their powder dry rather than actively seeking homes for their cash. "People haven't been buying. The ones with cash have been sitting tight until they see what happens."

While Mr O'Donnell's law firm has grown appreciably in recent years, it's has put the brakes on staff expansion in light of current circumstances.

That hasn't stopped it, however, from ploughing ahead with plans to move to a new HQ on Dublin's quays that will see the firm double its office space.

It has agreed to lease space in a new development planned by one of its own clients, Liam Carroll.

Mr O'Donnell sees no reason why his firm won't be able to maintain its timetable of moving to the new building by mid-2010, despite the fact that the development has become mired in what could be a protracted court case.

Treasury Holdings, which is headed by Richard Barrett and Johnny Ronan, as well as property mogul Sean Dunne, were incensed that the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) gave Mr Carroll an exemption certificate for his project despite the fact that a planning application for virtually the same development had been previously refused by Dublin City Council.

Treasury Holdings and Mr Dunne have accused the DDDA of inking an agreement that will add millions to the value of Mr Carroll's development, while diminishing the value of their own schemes adjacent to Mr Carroll's site. Mr Carroll has also succeeded in luring Anglo Irish Bank, which has committed to locating its new HQ at the development, and AIB Capital Markets, to his new scheme.

With property heavyweights now slinging accusations at each other, it seems optimistic that O'Donnell Sweeney will be calling the quays home by mid-2010.

The firm signed the deal with Liam Carroll less than a week ago, following negotiations which Mr O'Donnell says involved a "certain amount of haggling", and which ultimately secured a "very attractive financial deal".

Dismal

For O'Donnell Sweeney, the move is about planning for the future, despite the dismal medium-term economic forecast.

The landscape that every business operates in will be acutely changed following the global financial upheaval.

Mr O'Donnell admits that as one door closes, another opens and is adamant his firm will help guide clients through the current crisis.

"If you work for someone for 20 years, you can't just abandon them when they get into a spot of bother."


October 11, 2008

DDDA & Anglo Irish Bank & Revolving Doors

April 29 2007

  • Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick is on the board of the DDDA.
  • DDDA chairman(0) Lar Bradshaw is a board member of Anglo Irish Bank.

  • DDDA owns 26 per cent of a company called Becbay (1).
  • DDDA director Niamh O'Sullivan's day job is as a director of Arup Consulting(2).
  • Mary Finan ... Bank of Ireland ... member of the DDDA council ... consultant to the DDDA
  • Ann Butler: Ex-10-Year-Director EPA-Ireland; DDDA Consultant; Contractor/Independent Consultant for Covanta at Poolbeg & at Rathcoole (Energy Answes alias).

(0) 1997-2007.
(1) Becbay borrowed about €400 Million mainly from Anglo Irish Bank to exploit Sandymount Strand.
(2) Consultants to stinking Poolbeg Sewage factory & possibly on proposed Waste-To-Toxics Incinerator?
____________________________________

Wheels within wheels within Dublin's dockland authority

SHANE ROSS,
Sunday April 29 2007

http://www.independent.ie/business/wheels-within-wheels-within-dublins-dockland-authority-124825.html

IT IS always hard to detect the wheels within wheels. But the gigs that land in companies associated with the directors of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority are remarkable.
Everyone knows that the DDDA chairman Lar Bradshaw is a board member of Anglo Irish Banks. And everyone knows that Anglo Irish Banks chairman Sean FitzPatrick is on the board of the DDDA. These guys have an uncanny ability to recognise each other's talents.
So should we really be that surprised if Anglo gets so much business from the Dublin Docklands Development Authority?
Provided all of the business goes out to tender, that is fine.
DDDA owns 26 per cent of a company called Becbay.
Becbay bought into Paul Coulson's glass bottlers site which was sold for €412m.
Becbay borrows from Anglo Irish Banks. Indeed, the DDDA borrowed a pile from Anglo in January and then poured the money into Becbay. A nice little number for Anglo.
No doubt Sean and Lar had nothing to do with any loans from Anglo to the DDDA.
DDDA director Niamh O'Sullivan's day job is as a director of Arup Consulting engineers. The annual report reveals that Arup works as a consultant to the DDDA.
Another director was on the board of a company which did plenty of business with Anglo some years back.
Super ambitious serial director Mary Finan - believed to be eyeing a board place on the Bank of Ireland - is a member of the DDDA council. One of Mary's biggest gigs is as chairperson at Wilson Hartnell, another firm which has worked as a consultant to the docklands company.
When we asked the DDDA for a comment on all the cross-directorships on the DDDA - the declaration of interests, etc - it sent us back a po-faced reply: Becbay had tried several banks for its funding of the glass bottle purchase; it followed best practice, etc, etc.
Funnily enough, it failed to respond to the question about DDDA council member Mary Finan and her Wilson Hartnell's consultancy to the DDDA.
The bland statement in defence of the DDDA was signed by none other than Wilson Hartnell. No doubt they charged a fat fee for it.

October 10, 2008

When Anglo Irish Sails Away Does The Galway Tent Buy Sandymount Strand With Your Tax Money?

Empire of Dublin Developers Autocracy (DDDA).


When Anglo Irish Sails Away Does The Galway Tent Buy Sandymount Strand With Your Tax Money?

October 10, 2008.

If or when Anglo Irish goes bankrupt or is “saved” by taxpayers does BIFFO's Five Hundred Billion Euro deal mean the Irish Taxpayer is now buying 25 acres of the toxic IGB municipal dump site for the histrionic book value of €450 million, instead of for its current market value of say €45 Million?

BIFFO's Five Hundred Billion Taxpayer Euro =

  • €500,000,000,000
  • $700,000,000,000


Largest Bank Robbery

For the example of the IGB site, would people in The Beach Tavern consider a possible Galway Tent directed bank-and-developer-rescue to be a legal theft of more than €400 million of taxpayer's cash? That's equivalent to ten Northern Bank jobs, the largest illegal bank robbery in Ireland.

If they could cross The Bog Of Allen is it possible a Chinese or Mid-East Bank could call BIFFO's bluff? Just for the IGB site the money market suppliers could legally demand €450 Million. Such a bank could then liquidate the Glass Bottle site for say €45 million.

Honest Bankers

Anglo Irish Bank made a loan of €288 million enabling a consortium to buy the Glass Bottle Factory for €412 million. This factory is sited on Sandymount Strand and has been liberated from public ownership.

Guess who benefited in the form of substantial bonuses, options, revolving doors and other compensation. Could it be the gentlemen(a) slagging BIFFO and McCreavy as they departed AIB HQ on a wet night in Ballsbridge around 9PM on the Tuesday after BIFFO's deal? Their secretaries were a few hundred yards away (b). The Horse Show House was deserted. Crowe's was packed. Across the road from AIB HQ is The Four Seasons where the Galway Tent hangs out in The Ice Bar. The Galway Tent is never seen in Ringsend's Beach Tavern.

(a) all white middle aged gentlemen, as in the Mad Men's 1960s America

(b) all female, also exactly as in the Mad Men's 1960s America


Becbay's Half A Billion on Your Beach

Becbay valued the 24.5-acre Ringsend-Sandymount property at €449 million at the end of 2007. Becbay said construction on the site would start in April 2009. Becbay plans to develop 2,166 apartments and 252,000 sq m of commercial space. The project will generate revenues of €1.76 Billion and a pretax profit of €296 million,

Three Hundred workers were fired when the Glass Factory was shut. Glass is now exported for recycling.

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Friday, August 22, 2008

Anglo Irish defers €2.5m fee for Becbay
SIMON CARSWELL, Finance Correspondent

THE COMPANY behind the redevelopment of the Irish Glass Bottle Site at Ringsend in Dublin had its bank debt reduced by €2.57 million in 2007 due to the deferral of arrangement fees on loans of €293 million, new accounts show.

Anglo Irish Bank, which is financing the project, made a loan of €288 million to Becbay, the firm owned by the consortium which agreed to buy the Ringsend site for €412 million in November 2006.

The remainder of the purchase price came from the consortium, which comprises developer Bernard McNamara, financier Derek Quinlan, clients of Davy stockbrokers and the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA).

Anglo has deferred arrangement fees for property developer clients in the past, but the practice has become less common due to more restrictive lending amid the slowdown in the property market.

Becbay valued the 24.5-acre Ringsend property at €449 million at the end of 2007, an increase of almost 9 per cent on the site's purchase price, according to accounts just filed for the company.

Mr McNamara's company Donatex made a loan of €62.5 million to Becbay last year. He also made a personal loan of €101,000. Mr Quinlan's firm Mempal loaned €51.3 million, while the DDDA made a loan of €36.1 million.

Becbay made a pretax profit of €36,500 in 2007. The firm said construction on the site would start in April 2009. A company spokesman said the decontamination of the site, initially due to be completed by January, was "ahead of schedule" and would be completed in November. He declined to comment on the deferral of loan arrangement fees, saying it was "a private matter".

Assessing risks to the company, Becbay's directors said the firm had "sufficient" banking facilities in place and "continued equity support of all shareholders". Becbay said it had hedged on the interest bill on its bank loans. Some €202 million of the firm's bank debt of €293 million was on a fixed interest rate, while €91 million was a floating rate.

The company had incurred a liability of €502,000 on its interest rate swaps by the end of last year.

Becbay plans to develop 2,166 apartments and 252,000sq m of commercial space. The project will generate revenues of €1.76 billion and a pretax profit of €296 million, according to a 2006 information memorandum for the development. Becbay received €138.4 million in loan stock as equity for the site's purchase and development.

Davy's investors put up €52.25 million, with Mr McNamara personally guaranteeing their capital.

Under the investment agreement, the Davy investors will be paid an annual return of 17 per cent over seven years. Mr McNamara's firm, BMcNCO, can repay them after two years with at least a 40 per cent return and in minimum tranches of €1 million.

© 2008 The Irish Times

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Anglo Irish Bank, Dublin Docklands Authority, Gormley, Gormleymander, Money
Anglo Irish Bank, Dublin Docklands Authority, Gormley, Gormleymander, Money

DDDA Abused Power?

DUBLIN DOCKLANDS Development Authority acted outside its powers and breached fair procedures. DDDA is believed to be a subsidiary of John Gormley's Environment Department.

The judge said the agreement meant there was a direct relationship between the decision to grant the certificate under section 25 of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority Act, 1997, and the obtaining by the authority of the lands for public space.

She also found the authority breached fair procedures in not permitting Mr Dunne ... to make submissions on the proposed development ...

The planning scheme was in the nature of a contract between the docklands authority and, if not the public, at least the property owners within the area.

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Court quashes exemption status for €200m project
MARY CAROLAN, © 2008 The Irish Times

The former Brooks Thomas site on North Wall Quay in Dublin's docklands which is now owned by North Quay Investments Ltd. A planning exemption order granted by Dublin Docklands Development Authority was quashed by the High Court yesterday. The former Brooks Thomas site on North Wall Quay in Dublin's docklands which is now owned by North Quay Investments Ltd. A planning exemption order granted by Dublin Docklands Development Authority was quashed by the High Court yesterday


DUBLIN DOCKLANDS Development Authority acted outside its powers and breached fair procedures in how it certified that a €200 million development on Dublin's north quays, on which work is already under way, was exempt from planning permission, the High Court ruled yesterday.


It granted an order to rival developer
Seán Dunne quashing the certificate.The nature of a confidential agreement reached in May 2007 between the docklands authority and the developer, North Quay Investments Ltd (NQI), before the exemption was issued in July 2007, also gave rise to a "reasonable apprehension of bias" by the authority in reaching its decision, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan found.

Under the May 31st agreement, the developer agreed to cede free of charge certain land to the authority for use as public open space if the exemption certificate was granted.

The agreement provided either the authority or its executives would recommend to its board the certificate should be granted and also noted the current North Lotts planning scheme would not permit a development of the nature contemplated by NQI.

The judge said the agreement meant there was a direct relationship between the decision to grant the certificate under section 25 of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority Act, 1997, and the obtaining by the authority of the lands for public space.

The fact the docklands authority had stated it had a well-known practice of entering into agreements with developers, and that these were necessary on a practical basis, did not alter her conclusion on bias, the judge said.

The authority had very wide power to secure the development and regeneration of the docklands area and was obliged to have a procedure preventing its executives or board members giving any commitment on a certificate prior to the board deciding that application.

While pre-certificate discussions could be entered into, no commitment could be given that a certificate would issue, she said. "What is permissible falls short of what was done in this instance."

Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan was giving her reserved judgment on proceedings by Mr Dunne and his North Wall Property Holding Company (NWPHC) against the docklands authority over its decision of July 2007 that the proposed NQI development on the former Brooks Thomas site, bounded by North Wall Quay, New Wapping Street, Mayor Street and Castleforbes Road, was exempted development.

The NQI project surrounds on three sides development lands owned by Mr Dunne.

In a decision with far-reaching implications for the docklands authority, the judge ruled it was only empowered by the DDDA Act, 1997, to grant section 25 certificates for exempted development if that proposed development was consistent with the planning scheme.

If a proposed development was inconsistent with the planning scheme, the authority could not issue a certificate with conditions aimed at ensuring compliance in the future.

The judge ruled the proposed NQI development was inconsistent with the planning scheme for the North Lotts area of the docklands in relation to the proposed commercial use of the buildings and their height.

The authority was not entitled to grant - as it had in this case - certificates for such "fast-track" development on the basis of 22 conditions which had the intended effect of permitting a development, now inconsistent with the planning scheme, to be modified in the future so as to comply with the scheme, the judge ruled. The docklands authority had no power to enforce compliance with a section 25 certificate, she noted.

The judge stressed that her conclusion did not preclude the authority, in relation to developments considered consistent with the planning scheme, directing those developments be carried out with certain variations.

She also found the authority breached fair procedures in not permitting Mr Dunne, whose property would be affected by the proposed development, to make submissions on the proposed development and to have those considered prior to making its decision.

In granting the quashing orders to Mr Dunne, the judge said it was surprising and regrettable that the 1997 Act was silent about what procedure the authority should adopt for deciding whether section 25 certificates should be issued.

It was not disputed the North Lotts planning scheme was the blueprint for development of that area and was similar to a development plan under the planning Acts, she said.
The planning scheme was in the nature of a contract between the docklands authority and, if not the public, at least the property owners within the area.

Those property owners were entited to expect any development undertaken in the area would only be exempted by the docklands authority if it was consistent with the scheme.

© 2008 The Irish Times

DDDA Bias Legal Judgement

DDDA Bias Legal Judgement

At a cynical PR-event in June 2008, DDDA's senior project manager appeared to claim there was no conflict of interest between:

  • Financial player DDDA owning equity in the IGB site in Ringsend-Sandymount

and

  • Financial player DDDA Controlling the IGB planning permits.



Historic Planning.



In a curiously similar situation judge Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan said the nature of a confidential agreement reached in May 2007 between the DDDA and Mr Carroll's company before the exemption was issued in July 2007 gave rise to a "reasonable apprehension of bias" by the DDDA in reaching its decision.

Is it curious the proclaimed use was as a HQ for Anglo-Irish Bank, enablers of the €450 Million IGB purchase involving DDDA and Anglo-Irish?

-------------------------------

Mentioned:

  • Treasury Holdings /Spencer Dock consortium

  • Liam Carroll / North Quay Investments Ltd (NQI)

  • AIB Capital Markets

  • Anglo Irish Bank

  • DDDA

  • O'Donnell Sweeney solicitors

  • Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan

________________________________________________________________

Friday, October 10, 2008 The Irish Times

Dublin docklands agency faces massive compensation claim

FRANK McDONALD, Environment Editor

DUBLIN DOCKLANDS Development Authority (DDDA) faces the possibility of a multimillion euro compensation claim from developer Liam Carroll following a High Court judgment yesterday, according to a well-placed source.

Upholding a legal challenge by rival developer Seán Dunne, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan quashed the DDDA's fast-track planning permission for a €200 million development project by Mr Carroll on the former Brooks Thomas site at North Wall Quay.

The judge's ruling renders the authority's approval for this scheme - intended as a new headquarters for Anglo Irish Bank - null and void. Work carried out on the site by Mr Carroll's company, North Quay Investments Ltd (NQI), now constitutes "unauthorised development".

Deals done by NQI with Anglo Irish as well as with AIB Capital Markets and solicitors O'Donnell Sweeney to pre-let other office space on the site were now "dead in the water" as they were also made on foot of the same planning approval granted by the DDDA, the source said.

Since the authority has no power to grant retrospective permission, or retention, it seems unlikely that the development work under way on the former Brooks Thomas site can be legitimised - unless the DDDA was successful in an appeal to the Supreme Court.

In her judgment, Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan found that there was "a direct relationship" between the decision to grant approval under section 25 of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority Act 1997 and the company ceding part of the site to the DDDA for public space.

The effect of a section 25 approval under the 1997 Act is to exempt a development from the normal planning process, under which a planning application would be made to a local authority and then be open to public objections and possibly appeals to An Bord Pleanála.

The judge said the nature of a confidential agreement reached in May 2007 between the DDDA and Mr Carroll's company before the exemption was issued in July 2007 gave rise to a "reasonable apprehension of bias" by the DDDA in reaching its decision.

The Treasury Holdings-led Spencer Dock consortium also took a High Court action contesting the DDDA's deal with Mr Carroll's company. Another casualty of yesterday's High Court judgment could be the DDDA's plans to create a high-rise quarter jutting out into the river Liffey along North Wall Quay, east of Spencer Dock. This scheme would have been facilitated by NQI's ceding of land, free of charge.

© 2008 The Irish Times

October 9, 2008

DDDA & Gormleymander & Deception

The revolving door Fonctionaires in John Gormley's DDDA subsidiary have further committed taxpayers to the tune of €36 Million plus interest plus risk at IGB.

In June 2008, an egregious Gormleymander was fixed to expand DDDA's land grab into Sandymount. This curiously silent scheme was executed just a year after the DDDA's empire was expanded by Dick Roach to include Sandymount Strand. Swiftly after the empire's land grab, DDDA seems to have launched what appears to be a classic & expensive Big Lie public relations campaign curiously labelled as public consultation. This may not necessarily be a deliberate public deception campaign. However, has the public been deceived?

During the so-called public consultation in June 2008 it seems DDDA omitted its plans for shoebox flats. An innocent little mistake anyone could make. In September 2008, DDDA selectively disclosed drawings for masses of sixteen floor rabbit-hutch flats situated on top of a Waste-To-Toxics incinerator on the protected Sandymount seashore (violating Irish & EU standards).

Possibly for future Supreme Court reasons this possibly deliberate or possibly innocent omission was addressed by giving some crayoned plans to a small number of selected public-insiders, complete with roads onto Sandymount Strand curiously disguised as innocent green space running between the massive rabbit-hutch complexes. Curiously these drawings are not on DDDA's curious website. Very curious.

DDDA splashes the public transport system with expensive advertising. The Big Lie technique advertises its Urban Beach, a cynical replacement for the beach liberated from the public at Sean Moore Road.

In contrast to its brass-necked public consultation, DDDA has not used its multi-million taxpayer funded PR budget to inform the public with copies of these drawings. So, if DDDA is not fully informing the public, who is the beneficiary?

October 7, 2008

Ask Your Dentist

WE WOULD RECOMMEND INCINERATORS AND CIGARETTES.
[OUR EXPERT HAS BEEN PAID TO SAY THIS].



The Waste-To-Toxins industry has learned from The Tobacco Industry's best available lies.

Was data presented by Dublin City Council at the Oral Hearings just curious? Was it the whole truth?

Does anyone believe the data contained any Big Lies?

Are there any amazing parallels between DCC's presentations and Big Tobacco's presentation depicted below?

Try substituting x Incineration x for Nicotine, and x Dangerous x for x Addictive x in the testimony below. (Source: http://whyquit.com/whyquit/LinksAAddiction.html).

HONEST WASTE-TO-TOXINS PROMOTORSI believe that incineration is not dangerous.

1994 Congressional Oral Testimony

Video of April 14, 1994 testimony of seven tobacco company executives before Congress testifying that they believe that nicotine is not addictive

"I believe that nicotine is not addictive."

Click the image above to watch the April 14, 1994 testimony, under oath, of seven tobacco company chief executive officers (CEOs) before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy & Commerce,Subcommittee on Health and the Environment.

Congressman Wyden: "Let me ask you first, and I'd like to just go down the row, whether each of you believes that nicotine is not addictive. I've heard virtually all of you touch on it--yes or no, do you believe nicotine is not addictive?"

"I believe that nicotine is not addictive, yes". Philip Morris CEO (Chief Executive Officer) William I. Campbell
Congressman Wyden: "Mr. Johnston ..."
"Uh, Congressman, cigarettes and nicotine clearly do not meet the classic definition of addiction. There is no intoxication--" R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company CEO James Johnston
Congressman Wyden: We'll take that as a no. And again, time is short, if you can just, I think each of you believe nicotine is not addictive, I'd just like to have this for the record.

"I don't believe that nicotine or our products are addictive." U.S. Tobacco Company CEO Joseph Taddeo
"I believe that nicotine is not addictive." Lorillard Tobacco Company CEO Andrew Tisch
"I believe that nicotine is not addictive." Ligget Group CEO Edward Horrigan
"I believe that nicotine is not addictive." Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company CEO Thomas Sandefur"
And I too believe that nicotine is not addictive."
American Tobacco Company CEO Donald Johnston.


I believe that my pension is safe.

October 6, 2008

Poolbeg Incinerator Finances Built On House Of Cards

Independent.ie

Legal action threatens Poolbeg incinerator plan

By Paul Melia
Monday October 06 2008

A LANDMARK court case could result in the controversial Poolbeg incinerator being shelved.

Private waste collectors Greenstar and Panda are to ask the High Court to stop Dublin City Council limiting their activities in the city, and if successful it could throw the whole financial model for the waste-to-energy plant into doubt.

The council wants to tender out household waste collection routes in the city, saying that the current free-for-all is not working and is causing pollution because of the large number of bin trucks operating.

It proposes to allow companies to compete against each other to win household collection contracts, giving city bosses control of the waste stream.

This is essential because the council has entered into a 'put and pay' arrangement with the company which will operate the incinerator.

The agreement guarantees that a set amount of waste is sent for thermal treatment every year, or the council must pay a financial penalty.

However, two of the country's biggest private operators have sought a judicial review of the new regulations, which will be held in the High Court at the end of the month.

If they win the case, the council cannot guarantee a waste stream, and the whole financial model justifying the 600,000 tonne a year plant will be thrown into doubt.

"All of the infrastructure is based on owning the waste stream," one industry source said yesterday. "Everything stems from ownership of the waste.

"Poolbeg is fraught with difficulty. It's built on a house of cards and if one falls, the whole thing comes tumbling down. Dublin City Council must own and direct the waste."

Dublin City Council were not immediately available for comment, but Greenstar said that while incineration had a role in waste disposal, there was "no flexibility" in the system.

"Incineration has a role as an end of life disposal facility," spokesman Jerry Dempsey said.

"The Poolbeg one is too big and in the wrong place. Why lock into a system that offers no flexibility for the next 30 years?" he said.

The incinerator, which is opposed by Environment Minister John Gormley, was granted planning permission last November.

- Paul Melia

October 3, 2008

Stock Exchange investigating Anglo Irish Bank

The Galway Tent has acted. We are pleased to announce BIFFO followed the hints delivered to him in a bag of chips from The Galway Tent. The man of action ate a few sausages at 7 AM and then committed €400 Billion of the little peoples' money to 'save the banks'. The best Pyramid Scheme in the world rolls on.
_______________________


Revolving Doors:
Ex-DDDA Employee Now At Anglo Irish Bank.

Anglo Irish bank, whose shares tumbled 46% on Monday, had borne the brunt of the collapse in confidence, and was understood to be the main focus of the high-level talks to avert a crisis in the Irish banking system. On Tuesday, the lender's shares sky-rocketed in light of the government lifeline.



Any Bids for Sandymount Strand?
IGB-Sandymount Strand, On The Books At €425 Million.

__________________________

Bank chiefs facing share deals probe

By Ailish O'Hora Business News Editor

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/bank-chiefs-facing-share-deals-probe-1488613.html

Friday October 03 2008

THE Irish Stock Exchange is investigating a number of share dealings in Anglo Irish Bank, including those by the bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick and fellow director Lar Bradshaw, in the run-up to the Government's decision to introduce its €400 Billion ($600 Billion) bailout package.

The shares were bought over a week ago, after talks had opened between banks, the Financial Regulator, the Government and the Central Bank about the state of the banking system, but before the bailout was agreed.

The transactions earned Mr Fitzpatrick a paper profit of €326,000 and Mr Bradshaw a paper profit of €79,000.

Mr Fitzpatrick bought €1.1m worth of shares in Anglo -- which lends to the commercial sector -- at €3.85. Mr Bradshaw, who is former chairman of the Dublin Docklands Authority, bought 50,000 shares at €3.92 each.

Shares in Anglo Irish increased by 18pc last night to finish at €4.90.

Both share transactions were made on Tuesday, September 23, although discussions about the state of the Irish banking sector started prior to this date.

The share deals were conducted prior to the emergency discussions which led to the Government bailout in the early hours of Tuesday.

While the Financial Regulator is the competent authority on 2005 European market abuse directive, the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) works alongside the regulator in such cases.

Neither Mr Fitzpatrick nor Mr Bradshaw would comment on the investigation last night.

Mr Fitzpatrick was paid €431,000 for his role as chairman of the bank for the 12 months to the end of September 2007. He joined Anglo Irish in 1978 and became a director in 1985, and chief executive in 1986, before becoming non-executive chairman in 2004.

Details of the stock exchange probe emerged as the Government succeeded in getting its controversial €400m bailout passed into law yesterday.

It was signed by President Mary McAleese after the Dail and Seanad passed the bill yesterday morning, following a historic all-night debate.

Anglo Irish, whose shares tumbled 46.2pc on Monday, had borne the brunt of the collapse in confidence, and was understood to be the main focus of the high-level talks to avert a crisis in the banking system. On Tuesday, the lender's shares sky-rocketed in light of the government lifeline.

Challenge

Taoiseach Brian Cowen last night challenged the banks to start loaning again to businesses, who found credit lines had closed.

"Legitimate, well-planned and costed business ideas can now, and must now, be banked.

"We did not make the move we made in order to 'prop up' an ailing system. We chose this course because we have an economy to protect and to grow," he said.

In his address to a business dinner in Trinity College last night, Mr Cowen starkly warned the banking sector that the state guarantee was not free and that a "substantial fee" would be imposed.

He described this week's major intervention as a "defining moment in our nation's history."

"We need a robust banking system. Protecting it in the manner and on the scale we have done this week is not something government does lightly," he said.

Aside from the Government parties, Fine Gael and Sinn Fein voted for the plan, but the Labour Party opposed it.

Three non-Irish owned banks, Ulster Bank, Halifax and National Irish Bank, are now applying to be included under the State guarantee.

Mr Lenihan said the activities in this country of any bank admitted to the scheme will have to be ringfenced. "That's the crucial point," he said.

- Ailish O'Hora Business News Editor