Advert that opened a whole can of worms
IT was an advertisement offering a £10,000 reward that was ultimately to lead to the longest-running tribunal in the history of the state.
Concerned about rezoning corruption, barrister Colm MacEochaidh and environmentalist and former An Taisce chairman Michael Smith sponsored the advertisement in 1995 seeking information from the public.
Both men were convinced that rezoning in the greater Dublin area in particular was deeply corrupt and had enriched local government officials and politicians.
As Mr Smith was later to recall, whistleblower James Gogarty came forward to them and the Flood Tribunal eventually was set up.
Last night, Mr Smith, who now hopes to relaunch 'Village' magazine as an investigative monthly, said the tribunal had taken too long and cost too much.
But he said he hoped and expected its final report would be "comprehensive and devastating" about the scale of corruption in the former Dublin Co Council.
If so, it might be expected to lead to the wholesale change away from developer-led planning that the political classes, including the current government, had so far proved cynically unwilling to effect.
He added he would be particularly interested in its findings on Cherrywood in south Dublin, since it was suspicion over this rezoning, which he spent a long time opposing, that led him to contemplate the reward in the first place.
- Fergus Black
