Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, has welcomed the recent announcement of the Moriarty Tribunal that it is to investigate the circumstances surrounding the sale of State lands at Glen Ding, West Wicklow to the Roadstone company.

“Serious questions have been asked over the years about how 140 acres of woods at Glen Ding containing valuable sand and gravel deposits were sold to Roadstone in 1990 without a public tendering process” says de Burca. “Now finally, the Moriarty Tribunal has decided to investigate the whole issue”.

De Burca points out that former Taoiseach Charles Haughey’s financial advisor, the late Des Traynor, was also a director and later chairman of Roadstone. “Over the next two weeks, the inquiry will be investigating who benefited from the Government’s decision at the time, and whether it was connected to the operation of Ansbacher accounts by Mr Traynor” she says.

Cllr de Burca points out that Minister Dick Roche voted with the Government at the time not to include the sale of the Glen Ding lands within the remit of the Moriarty Tribunal when the matter came before the Oireachtas in the mid 1990s.
“It will be interesting to see what the Minister has to say about the Tribunal’s recent announcement,” says de Burca. “I believe as Minister for the Environment and Local Government, he should insist that the many other questionable planning and waste decisions that Wicklow County Council has subsequently made in relation to Roadstone’s lands at Glen Ding should be referred to the Mahon Tribunal for its investigation. The series of shady deals between the council and the Roadstone company that have applied to these lands at Glen Ding over the years must now be subject to the full rigours of a tribunal inquiry”.

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Press Release by Deirdre