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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 17 Apr 2002

Vol. 552 No. 1

Ceisteanna – Questions. - Battle of the Boyne Site.

Michael Noonan

Ceist:

1 Mr. Noonan asked the Taoiseach his Department's role in the purchase by the State of the Battle of the Boyne site; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9991/02]

As Deputies will know, this issue was discussed in considerable detail in the House on 1 May and 14 November last year. For their benefit, I would again like to put the position on the record.

On 8 January 1998 the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Andrews, announced that he had asked officials to examine "how best to encourage and facilitate an understanding of the Battle of the Boyne and an appreciation of the environment in which it took place." Subsequently, an interdepartmental committee, made up of representatives of the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Taoiseach, Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands and the Environment and Local Government, as well as the Office of Public Works and Bord Fáilte, was established and held its first meeting on 12 March 1998.

The mandate of the committee was to examine how best to develop the historic Battle of the Boyne site. The committee, which is chaired by a senior official from the Department of Foreign Affairs, has been meeting on a regular basis since it was established. Very importantly, from an early date the archivist of the Orange Order participated fully in meetings of the committee and the order has expressed its appreciation for the commitment of resources by the Government for the purchase of the Oldbridge estate and for the effort being devoted to its planning and development.

The condition of the site had been a concern for some time to the Unionist and Protestant people and organisations in Northern Ireland, for whom the battle has a particular significance. In the context of consolidation of peace and reconciliation, and as a cultural heritage and tourism project in its own right, and having become aware that the owners of the Oldbridge estate were interested in selling the property, the Office of Public Works was asked to explore the possible acquisition of part or all of the estate with a view to providing greatly improved visitor facilities.

The estate forms a substantial part of the battle site – the Orange Order has subsequently confirmed its view that the estate encompasses the central portion of the battlefield where the major action took place and where most of the casualties occurred – and it was offered to the State on commercial terms. A number of site visits were made to the estate, including by the Minister of State with responsibility for public works, Deputy Cullen, the chairman of the Office of Public Works and members of my office.

The Good Friday Agreement placed a formal commitment on the Government "to continue to take further steps to demonstrate its respect for the different traditions on the island of Ireland". It was against this background, therefore, and immediately after the establishment of the institutions on 2 December 1999, that on 5 December 1999 I announced that the Government had agreed in principle to purchase the site of the Battle of the Boyne.

As I indicated to the House previously, the Office of Public Works negotiated the purchase of the Oldbridge estate for £7.85 million, a valuation which it considered fair, and funding for the purchase came from the Exchequer through the Vote for the Office of Public Works, following sanction by the Department of Finance. Neither I nor my officials played any part in the negotiations on the purchase of the site.

This matter was raised here on previous occasions. Unless people have forgotten the details, a private company, Deep River Limited, purchased the site for £2 million in 1997. Two years later, it sold it on to the State for £7.85 million. This resulted in a profit of £5 million being made in a two year period. A close associate of the Taoiseach, Mr. Tim Collins, was involved. It transpires from material released under the Freedom of Information Act that the Government was divided on the purchase and that the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, who has responsibility for heritage sites, was opposed to it. Will the Taoiseach explain how he considered this to be a justifiable purchase when the Minister responsible was opposed to it, one of his close associates was involved in it and the profit from it was twice the purchase price within a two year period? Were any other of his associates involved in the purchase? Will he again inform the House whether he was personally involved in making representations to have the site purchased?

I will reply again. It did transpire that an associate of mine had been involved, unknown to me, as part of the McCann family group which was involved in the purchase and sale of the site. I have put this on the record previously. I was not involved in making representations for the site to be purchased. The suggestion originated within the public service at the behest of the Department of Foreign Affairs following representations it had received on numerous occasions, in particular during the period of the multi-party talks in 1997 and 1998.

The figures the Deputy quoted from the records are correct. It is not correct, however, that the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Deputy de Valera, was in any way opposed to the site. Dúchas, the Minister and her officials were totally in favour of the purchase of the site. However, as revealed in the material requested under the Freedom of Information Act, her Department did not have the resources and was concerned, therefore, to make sure that the resources were not taken from its budget. Of course, this did not happen. The Minister was totally in favour of the entire project as was every other member of the Government.

I wish to make it clear again that the idea for this project originated in the public service and has been pursued at all times solely on the basis of its national importance. The Government for its part was motivated solely by the desire to contribute to peace, reconciliation and better understanding between the different traditions on the island and to recognise the importance of the Battle of the Boyne site from an historical and heritage point of view. From the beginning, the project had the strong support of the Government and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who brought it to Government.

In addition, my suggestion in relation to the inclusion of the development of the Battle of the Boyne site in the National Millennium Committee, which has been raised here before, was grounded on the need to recognise cultural diversity in this jurisdiction as part of our commitment under the Agreement and to take further steps to promote and demonstrate a respect for the different traditions on this island. I outlined this in a speech in May 1998, shortly after the signing of the Agreement, entitled "The Good Friday Agreement and Cultural Diversity".

Does the Taoiseach agree that the purchase of this site was being discussed internally in Departments long before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement? Could he explain why the site was not purchased from the original ven dors and the reason a private consortium, River Deep Limited, was allowed to acquire it in the first instance and sell it on to the State at a profit of £5 million? Will he indicate whether Mr. Paddy Duffy was part of the consortium or was hired as a consultant by Mr. Tim Collins in connection with this transaction?

No, Mr. Paddy Duffy, who worked in my Department until the summer of 1999, was not part of the consortium, nor was he part of the McCann group which was involved in the site. The official of my office who dealt with the matter was my adviser who worked on North-South matters and was deeply involved in the project throughout.

It is totally incorrect to state that the purchase of the site was being discussed in 1997. The first statement by the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Andrews, was on 8 January 1998 and is on the public record. It was issued in response to requests made by Archbishop Eames and others, but mainly Archbishop Eames, which raised the state of the site and asked the Government, as part of its focus on the creation of a lasting peace, to endeavour to use the site for the purposes of reconciliation and mutual understanding. Messines was the other site in which we were asked to take an active interest, which we did. That was followed by the setting up of an interdepartmental group. It was only during the discussions of the interdepartmental group at the end of 1998 that it was made known by the then owners that they had an interest in selling it. At the time public statements were made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and others that the site should be preserved and used as an instrument to help the political settlement.

It was not done prior to the Good Friday Agreement. The statement was made on 8 January 1998 and the interdepartmental group was set up in March 1998, but it was towards the end of 1998 before any move happened. It was the end of 1999 before the Government made a decision after the signing of the agreement, which was two years later.

I understand the transaction is being investigated by the Flood tribunal. Has the Government been requested to forward all documents in respect of this transaction and, if so, has it done so?

Yes. In February 2001 the Secretary General of my Department instructed the head of corporate affairs to bring together at the earliest possible date all the files and other documentation related in any way to this project and to forward them immediately to the tribunal. That has been done. Statements by my staff, who were involved in any of the site visits, and by the Secretary General of my Department, who instigated the project when he played another role in the Department of Foreign Affairs, are also included.

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