McCreevy spurns criticism on funding

MINISTER for Finance Charlie McCreevy last night gave his first public defence of his role in the controversial decision to allocate €15.5m to the Punchestown event centre.

In a typically cavalier speech during the adjournment debate in the Dáil, the minister dismissed criticism of the decision out of hand.

However, he did not directly address questions raised by the Public Accounts Committee about why he and Minister for Agriculture Joe Walsh had fast-tracked approval without subjecting the project to the usual application process.

Mr McCreevy said the project was “subject to careful appraisal” in the Department of Agriculture and that he had only approved it after Agriculture had been satisfied of its merits.

“It seems to me the biggest problem that some critics of this project have is not its existence but its location,” he said. “The fact is that no other promoter made an approach to provide such a facility and . . . the large land bank at Punchestown made that location suitable.”

Saying that some opponents would have preferred it to be located in Mount Merrion, the minister said his view was that there was a need for such a facility and Punchestown was the “ideal location for the centre”.

However, when it came to the decision process, the minister dealt with the three tranches of approved funding in three paragraphs and made no references to issues raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

In particular, he made no reference to an early letter seeking approval from the promoters to the Minister for Agriculture in November 1999, which seemingly referred to earlier meetings with Mr McCreevy and Mr Walsh about the project.

In relation to the allocation of the additional €1.5m granted after a spending cap was imposed on the project, the minister said: “Arising from planning conditions imposed by Kildare County Council, the Minister for Agriculture sough sanction for a further €1.5m, which I approved, subject to the money being found from within the resources of [Agriculture].”

Last night Labour finance spokesperson Joan Burton said the minister had evaded critical questions about the project. “Were other promoters made aware that the Government was offering such major funding? It seems the promoters of the centre and the Ministers for Finance and Agriculture met before the application was made but he didn’t address that. All we got was more flim and flam.”