REGENCY TRIAL DRAMA Dowdall’s new life is set to cost taxpayers just €100K
WITNESS ‘LEFT TO FEND FOR HIMSELF WITHIN MONTHS’
It is expected 150 homes will be ready for occupancy in the next 24 months.
The investment approach is to rent the builds out to local authorities and eventually transfer them over once the lease period ends.
Peter van der Poel, Ingka’s managing director, said: “I hope this project will provide an innovative, community focused template for social housing provision in Ireland.”
He said it demonstrated “a new way for companies like ours to be part of the solution.”
Each project compromises around 50-70 units to ensure minimal disturbance to local services and neighbourhoods.
Work on the projects will start shortly.
THE new life for Jonathan Dowdall will cost Irish taxpayers just €100,000 — and he’ll have to stand on his own feet after a few months, it has emerged.
A day after the bombshell news emerged that the former Sinn Fein councillor is to give evidence in the murder trial of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch, sources have confirmed to The Star that it is unlikely the State will buy him a new home.
Instead, the sources — who have an indepth knowledge of the Witness Security Programme that Dowdall (44) is being assessed for — revealed that it is more likely that the State will rent him a property for a few months.
Dowdall will have to give up his life and start again abroad after he dramatically agreed late last week to make a 50-page statement to gardai.
Mr Dowdall, a former member of Dublin City Council, was also orginally charged with the murder of David Byrne (34) — but that charge against him was shelved on Monday.
He has now pleaded guilty along with his father Patrick Dowdall (65) to the lesser charge of facilitating the murder — after they admitted hiring a room at the hotel as part of the murder plot.
The men’s sentencing hearing at the non-jury Special Criminal Court on Monday heard that Jonathan Dowdall, who like his father has an address on Cabra Road in Dublin 7, had agreed to give what was described as very significant evidence in the Monk’s trial.
The court also heard he is being assessed for entry into the state’s secretive Witness Security Programme – which sees men and women who give evidence in high-profile trials being handed lifetime protection, usually abroad.
It had been thought the scheme – in which Mr Dowdall and his immediate family will be given new identities and a new life abroad – could cost the State millions, but sources with knowledge of how the scheme works dismissed this last night.
Operation
They said they believed the Dowdall operation would cost the State €100,000 — or even less.
And they also revealed that businessman Mr Dowdall would be expected to fend for himself financially after around three months.
One expert told The Star: “If it was me, I’m thinking I’d manage it for less than €100,000.
“He will be supplied with a similar standard of living as he has here. So probably a rented property covered for three months and moderate living expenses.
“He’d be expected to go get work. He won’t be paid and it is unlikely that a property would be purchased for him.”
And he added: “A cornerstone of the Witness Security Programme is that you don’t end up with a significantly higher standard of living.”
The source also revealed that gardai would not be involved in protecting Dowdall if and when he went overseas – but it would be the responsibility of cops in the host country.
He said: “We don’t really protect him if he goes to WSP and overseas.
“We just have to pay the initial costs to relocate him, setting up an apartment, new documents, etc.”
The source confirmed it was likely that Dowdall would go to another Englishspeaking country — but he ruled out America.
“The USA has never taken overseas protected witnesses,” he said.
News of Dowdall’s decision to give evidence came during the first day of Mr Hutch’s trial.
Mr Hutch, last of The Paddocks, Clontarf, Dublin 3, is charged with the murder of Kinahan gang member David Byrne at the Regency Hotel on the Swords Road, Whitehall, Dublin 9, on February 5, 2016.
Kinahan cartel associate Byrne (34), from Crumlin, was shot dead after five men stormed the building.