2004: Carrickmines: What The Fuck Is Going On Madam?

dublin | environment | opinion/analysis Friday February 13, 2004 02:36 by landless nameless

.

Caldwell

Dear Madam,

What the Fuck is Going On?

It is clear that State authorities broke the law at
Carrickmines. Rather than the proposed whitewash of
changing the law to legitimise the illegal, surely it
is far more important that there is an investigation
to explain how the law came to be breached? If we want
to avoid repeating such a mess, then we must learn
from this one?

While the government’s insistence on completing such
necessary infrastructure is understandable, I note
that they have been less than vocal on explaining
their equal determination to build the controversial
adjacent roundabout and ancillary road. As recently
reported in “The Irish Times”, it seems clear that M50
completion does not rely on either this roundabout or
road, but that access to “Jackson Way” properties
does. It is also of note that is precisely these road
works - conveniently being built under the auspices
“motorway construction” - that would be responsible
for the greater part of destruction of the Monument at
Carrickmines. Surely if they were pragmatically acting
in the “public interest”, the Government would have
been a lot more likely to deter legal action, and the
associated delays, by dropping these most contentious
aspects of the road works at Carrickmines?
  
If nothing else, it is of interest that without such a
roundabout - and the access it provides - “Jackson
Way” property would remain effectively land-locked and
could not be developed. It is within this context,
that the belligerent insistence on the part of
authorities to refuse contemplation of any kind of
compromise makes for Carrickmines being not a saga -
but a scandal. Qui bono?

In any case, it must be easier even at this stage to
alter a few lines on an engineer’s drawing board
rather than it is to introduce a raft of new
legislation: legislation that itself maybe susceptible
to legal challenges, and all the associated delays
that that may create?

Yours etc,

Landless, Nameless

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A solicitor who 'froze' the Carrickmines land deal in favour of developer, Jim Kennedy, and solicitor, John Caldwell, has told the Mahon Tribunal that he was misled.
Frank Friel said he was unaware either man had an interest in the lands, and that the way he was led into registering a caution on the lands appears to be 'incredibly devious'.
Mr Friel was called in by John Caldwell during the sale in 1988, and again four years later to act as liquidator for Paisley Park, the company behind the purchase.advertisement


advertisementMr Friel said he never met Mr Kennedy, and had no idea he was involved. He was also unaware that his former partner, Mr Caldwell, was a beneficial owner while acting as a solicitor.
He said he registered a caution on the 108 acres in 1988 after drafting an affidavit that stated that solicitor Gerard Charlton was a registered trustee.
He agreed with the Tribunal's counsel that this was false information he had been given. The Tribunal heard the caution had the effect of tying up the lands, and Mr Friel said 'if it was planned in that way then it was incredibly devious'.
He said he did not know why the company was put into voluntary liquidation in 1992 at a time when it was solvent, but he thought it was part of a 'tax mitigation' scheme.
The Mahon Tribunal is trying to establish the ownership of lands at Carrickmines, which were purchased by Paisley Park and subsequently taken into ownership by Jackson Way.