Dáil probe into Cullen’s PR adviser deal

THE controversial awarding of an €11,000-a-month contract by Transport Minister Martin Cullen to his PR adviser, Monica Leech, is to be officially probed again next week.

Environment Minister Dick Roche will face a series of parliamentary questions from Fine Gael on his predecessor’s appointment of the company run by Mr Cullen’s election campaign worker as communications adviser to the Department of the Environment.

Separately, Mr Roche will be asked by the party about his plan to give the go-ahead to Swedish furniture giant Ikea to open its first store in Ireland by lifting the existing size limit on superstores.

Mr Roche’s decision follows a review of the Retail Planning Guidelines relating to the floorspace cap on retail warehouses initiated by Mr Cullen during his time in the Department of the Environment.

Reservations and opposition to the alteration of the cap have been expressed by business and trade organisations, including IBEC, ISME, RGDATA and the Irish Hardware and Building Materials Association.

On the subject of the contracts, Mr Cullen, this week categorically denied he was involved in a relationship with Ms Leech.

Although accepting that the Waterford-based public relations expert was one of his political supporters, the minister rejected charges that he had favoured Ms Leech when she was originally awarded a contract shortly after he was appointed as Environment Minister. Payments totalling €303,000 were made to ‘Monica Leech Communications’.

The status of Ms Leech within the department was highlighted earlier this year when it was revealed, on foot of questions from Enda Kenny, that she sat on the interview panel responsible for awarding the controversial €4.7 million electronic voting publicity contract to a company described as so-called “friends of Fianna Fáil”.

At the time, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the granting of the contract to the consortium headed by Q4 Public Relations, run by former FF general secretary Martin Macken and former Government adviser Jackie Gallagher, was completely in line with public procurement rules.

Fine Gael environment spokesman Fergus O’Dowd is coming back with a further list of questions on a range of contracts awarded during Mr Cullen’s tenure.

“Fine Gael will be pursuing the matter in Dáil Éireann next week to establish whether all appropriate procedures were followed in the procurement of professional services by Minister Cullen,” a party spokesperson said.

Last night, a spokesman for Mr Roche said there was no problem with Fine Gael putting forward questions on issues related to the Department of the Environment.

“We will provide the information as requested,” the spokesman said. After the 2002 election, Ms Leech’s company was initially hired as Mr Cullen’s communications adviser on a six-month contract.