IF ANYONE HAS AN ISSUE HERE THEY SHOULD CONTACT OUR SOLICITORS WITH THEIR EVIDENCE
times in the last three months.’
Cllr Keith Doyle said the council can’t spend time looking into second and third party allegations, suggesting that the courts are the proper forum.
‘It’s as clear as mud and so are the questions,’ he commented.
Cllr Willie Kavanagh said the matter was being raised in the Dáil over the following days, while Cllr Michael Sheehan said the council had taken it as far as it could.
Mr Larkin said there was no legal obligation for the council to look into it. ‘ The matter stretches back 25 years but some members were concerned and wanted to look into it.’
He said he met the concerned parties for six hours over the course of some meetings and read three submissions.
‘I have tried as honestly as possible and I approached it absolutely straight-bat and if wrongdoing occurred I wasn’t going to hide it but the actual matter the group is complaining of is very amorphous and it’s very difficult to get a handle on what occurred.’
Mr Larkin said he has checked all of the legal and corporate files going back to the 1980s, adding that he found that the evidence points in the exact opposite direction.
‘ This is a complex issue as all property in Wexford town is complex as it goes back to the leases in the 1700s. I looked at whether or not the council abused it powers, if anyone was paid who shouldn’t have been paid and if anyone was compensated who shouldn’t have been. All I can say is what the records indicate and the land was acquired in two blocks by agreement.’ Mr Larkin said he found no evidence of corruption. ‘ This thing remained perfectly settled for 20 years and these concerns only arose over the past two to three years. We are in the middle of a very similar process with the OPW over the courthouse and the garda station in Wexford. I am confident I have answered all of the questions. We have released hundreds of documents and I have issued a 26 page report on this. I believe the council has discharged its obligations for transparency. Hundreds of hours of work was involved. I am disappointed the group finds it wanting but they announced that the report was biased before I even started writing it.’
He said reputational damage is being done to the council every time the matter is brought up, adding that if councillors who are familiar with the case can’t grasp its complexities, how will the man on the street.
CEO Tom Enright said: ‘ This is not the type of issue the council should be discussing on an ongoing basis. We don’t deal with innuendo or hearsay. We deal with facts. A huge amount of work has been done over the last few months. This (case) goes back a quarter of a century. Why did it take that much time to come forward with it? If someone was cheated or the subject of wrongdoing, why wasn’t it raised before? This has come to a stage where we have to draw a line under it. If there are people out there who feel there is more evidence of wrongdoing nobody came forward by the due date. If anyone has an issue here they should contact our solicitors with their evidence.’
Chairman Cllr Paddy Kavanagh said anyone with any issues can contact Mr Larkin of Mr Enright.
The members agreed by majority to his proposal.