Memo dents claim by FG that Ahern backed casino
Party's attempts to embarrass Taoiseach appear to have backfired
Sunday January 20 2008
FINE Gael's attempts to turn up the heat on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern over his alleged support in the 1990s for the Phoenix Park casino project appear to have backfired.
Documents obtained by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny under the Freedom of Information Act, and subsequently released to the Sunday Independent, directly contradict claims made by the main opposition party that Mr Ahern had initially given the casino project his support while serving as Minister for Finance in 1994.
The papers also show how in 1995, the then chairman of the board of the National Lottery Company, John Hynes, wrote to Mr Ahern's successor as Minister for Finance, Labour TD Ruairi Quinn, offering the Lottery's assistance in running the Phoenix Park casino in the event that amending Government legislation was introduced.
Last week, Fine Gael said that it was in the process of assessing the information with a view to releasing it into the public domain. An unnamed party official claimed some of the FOI material would "contradict the understanding that Mr Ahern opposed the [Phoenix Park casino] development".
In a further claim, unnamed Fine Gael sources intimated that their party leader had secured what they described as "contemporaneous notes" of a Department of Finance official which suggested Mr Ahern had initially supported the proposals for the Phoenix Park.
By last night those claims appeared to have fallen flat.
An examination by the Sunday Independent of all the documents released to Fine Gael from the Department of Finance found no evidence to support its contention that Mr Ahern had given his support to the proposals for the Phoenix Park.
According to the file documents, the "contemporaneous notes" prepared by Department of Finance official Phil Furlong on August 31, 1994, show only that one of the casino project's proposers, Manchester-based businessman Norman Turner, had claimed to have the support of various Government ministers, including Mr Ahern.
The memo further shows that this information was relayed to Mr Furlong by the then chairman of the board of the National Lottery Company, John Hynes. Mr Hynes hit the headlines recently when he issued a dramatic statement claiming Mr Ahern had given his "implicit approval" for the Phoenix Park casino proposals.
While Mr Hynes continues to stand over that statement, the relevant memo obtained by Fine Gael two weeks ago, and formally released to the Sunday Independent last Friday, provides no evidence of Mr Ahern's backing.
It states: "Mr Furlong states that Mr Hynes had briefed him on his involvement with the casino project. Mr Hynes explained that he had had a series of meetings with the promoters of the Vector/Ogden project.
Mr Turner informed him that he had had a series of meetings with Government ministers, including the Minister for Finance [Mr Ahern], from which he claimed to have received assurances that there would be no problem about the promotion of amending legislation."
- RONALD QUINLAN
