[Article] Green Party to take Adamstown case to Europe

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/1072488?view=Eircomnet

Green Party to take Adamstown case to Europe
From:ireland.com
Tuesday, 22nd July, 2003

The Green Party has said it is to lodge a complaint to the European Commission over the controversial Adamstown development planned for the South Dublin area.

An oral hearing into the plan to create a new town at Adamstown, near Lucan, opened yesterday in Dublin and is expected to last for at least a week.

The Green Party said it will make a complaint over the failure by the planning authority South Dublin County Council to require an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS) for the Adamstown development.

Under the draft plan approved by the council, some 10,000 housing units would be built on a 500-acre site at Adamstown. The new town would eventually grow to a population of 20,000, making it bigger than many towns in the Greater Dublin Area.

Some residents' groups in the Lucan area are opposing the development on the grounds it will create traffic congestion and that there is inadequate infrastructure to support it. They are represented at the oral hearing.

Lucan Green Party representatives Paul Gogarty TD and Councillor Fintan McCarthy claim the council has breached European Directive number 85/337/EEC in failing to prepare an EIS for the development.

Mr Gogarty said: "The [Adamstown] planning scheme fails to require an EIS upon the entire development site prior to the commencement of construction. This is an indefensible position for a planning authority to take given that we are talking about the largest single development in the history of the State".

Mr McCarthy said the reasoning behind the refusal by planners to specify the need for an EIS revolved around whether or not the Adamstown scheme constitued a "project".

"It is not good enough that wordplay is used to avoid the obvious need for a comprehensive assessment of the development," he said.

Both Green Party representatives are attending the Adamstown hearing for its duration.

Counsel for the Deliver It Right Campaign, which is campaigning for proper infrastructure to be put in place before any development at Adamstown, today outlined its reasons why an EIS is required under Irish and EU law.

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/1075913?view=Eircomnet

Lawlor could earn €2.5m from Adamstown, tribunal hears
From:ireland.com
Tuesday, 22nd July, 2003

Former Fianna Fáil TD Mr Liam Lawlor stands to earn at least €2.5 million from the sale of a sewerage system under the proposed Adamstown development in west Dublin.

The Mahon tribunal heard today Mr Lawlor is one of the three shareholders in a construction company called Pentagon Property Services Limited, which has built a huge system of pipelines under the land that makes up the proposed 550-acre Adamstown Strategic Development Zone (ASDZ).

The pipes were laid in the 1980s, years before the land was earmarked for development.

An Bord Pleanála is currently hearing submissions for planning permission to build up to 10,000 houses, 125,500 sq ft of commercial property, four schools, a railway station and a fire station in the area.

Among those who have lodged submissions are Mr Lawlor's wife, Hazel, who has applied to have the family home in Lucan and lands around it rezoned and included in the development.

Mr Lawlor told the tribunal he owns at least 25 per cent of Pentagon Property Services. He is in dispute with his former solicitor Mr John Caldwell over a further 25 per cent, and could potentially own half the company.

The former TD admitted that controversial businessman Mr Jim Kennedy was the other major shareholder, but refused to accept a claim by Mr Des O'Neill SC for the tribunal that Mr Kennedy owned 50 per cent of the shares. "I can't be specific about what interest he has, whether he has one share or 50 shares, I don't know," Mr Lawlor said. "And I'm not very interested."

"But the tribunal is, Mr Lawlor", said Mr O'Neill.

Mr O'Neill estimated that the pipe system could be sold for around €10,000,000 to whoever secured permission to develop the ADSZ. The owners of the development would "have to come to some agreement" with owners of Pentagon Property Services, or they would be unable to build the houses.

"In effect, they are held by ransom by you, are they not?" asked Mr O'Neill.

"Held to negotiation, rather, not ransom" Mr Lawlor insisted.

Therefore, Mr Lawlor's 25 per cent share was worth at least €2.5 million, Mr O'Neill said, and should he succeed in his dispute with Mr Caldwell over the other 25 per cent, he could earn up to €5 million.

So how, Judge Alan Mahon asked Mr Lawlor, was the tribunal expected to accept his claims he could not comply with orders of discovery because he could not afford £10,000 in legal fees?

Surely Mr Lawlor, with such a valuable asset, could secure a loan from any financial institution in the country?

It wasn't that simple, Mr Lawlor answered, as the figure of €2.5 million was misleading. The value of an asset "is what someone's prepared to pay for it", not some theoretical estimate put forward by tribunal lawyers.

"[The earning potential] is all in the future, it's not in the present."