This article was first published in the Irish Mail on Sunday on 11/12/2011
By: Michael O’Farrell
Investigations Editor
NAMA has signed off a budget of up to €10m for one of the country’s most indebted developers to knock down a historical building linked to the 1916 Easter Rising as part of a new €1bn shopping centre development.
The proposal, which calls for much of Dublin’s Moore Street to be demolished, forms part of a proposal by developer Joe O’Reilly. Mr O’Reilly, whose companies owe close to €3bn, is believed to be one of two developers being paid a €200,000 salary by Nama.
Despite the huge debts, he continues to live in a house that is 10 times the size of the average Irish home. With an indoor pool, sauna, gym and cinema, the house is worth about €10m – the same amount Nama will pay for the Moore Street development.
Mr O’Reilly’s company, Chartered Land Ltd, has conditional planning permission for the shopping centre, which stretches from the old Carlton cinema site on O’Connell Street to Moore Street.
The only obstacle is the fact that No.16 Moore Street and three neighbouring properties have been designated national monuments and cannot be touched without ministerial consent.
With just five years to go before the centenary of the Easter Rising, the Nama plan has raised the prospect that the whole historical area will be a building site.
Moore Street was at the centre of the rebellion when, after six days of fighting, the leaders were in dire trouble.
With the GPO and surrounding area reduced to rubble, Patrick Pearse and fellow leaders converged in Plunkett’s butchers at No.16 Moore Street.
In a back room on the first floor, the ‘provisional government’, including the wounded James Connolly, set up headquarters. On Saturday, April 30, Pearse, in neat handwriting signed a letter of surrender.
As the centenary of that defining day approaches, the signatures of a new generation – among them Nama’s most indebted developer, Joe O’Reilly – will shortly seal the fate of the historic site.
Permission has been given for the remainder of the original Moore Street terrace to be demolished but the site has been subject to dispute.
Chartered Land has proposed that No.16 Moore Street be turned into a commemorative centre and an application is already on the desk of Heritage Minister Jimmy Deenihan. But the matter is complicated by the fact that Dublin City Council has also passed a motion calling on the Government to designate all of Moore Street as a national monument.
When the matter is resolved, Mr O’Reilly and Nama will be free to either develop the planned shopping centre or sell on a ready-made site with full planning permission to someone looking for a bargain.
That’s what some city councillors and Moore Street campaigners believe will happen.
Officials from O’Reilly’s company met Dublin City Council on September 7 last. According to reports, the company gave the impression that Nama had agreed to back it to the tune of €10m to complete the commemorative centre – a move that would then clear the way for a possible sale.
Since the plans would see much of the original terrace demolished, it is opposed by the Save 16 Moore Street Campaign, of which James Connolly Heron, a great grandson of James Connolly, is a member.
When campaign founder Patrick Cooney wrote to Nama querying the €10m funding, he received this response: ‘I can confirm that Nama approved funding in respect of the application for Ministerial consent to works at the National Monument.’ The response was sent via email by Felix McKenna of Nama on September 14.
But when pressed to be more specific, Mr McKenna’s next email seemed to row back.
‘I confirm that no decision has yet been taken in respect of funding the proposed works to the National Monument, the subject of the Ministerial consent application,’ he wrote.
Independent Councillor Niall Ring submitted a question to the City Manager asking if Councillors had been misinformed about Nama funding. The response came in the form of a statement from Chartered Land to last month’s City Council meeting.
‘The company had secured funding, with the approval of Nama, for the proposed works associated with the National Monument… up to the point of tender stage completion,’ wrote project director Gary Cooper.
However, after a decade of campaigning, those determined to preserve the area are not prepared to give up.
Mr Connolly Heron said he is appalled that the taxpayer is being asked to fund the work to benefit an indebted developer.
He asked: ‘If the State, through Nama, can finance the lavish lifestyles of those who engaged in activity that brought this country to its knees, is it too much to ask that funding can be made available to ensure that those who gave their lives for the country can be honoured in a fitting manner?’
ENDS
Dear sir,madam,
I hope that the 1916 site is not demolished for the sake of development. We seem to destroy so much of our history for the purpose of a new carpark or superstore. If we destroy the site it will be gone forever..surely we could make a museum in the buillding to remember those who gave their lives for Irish Independence. It is part of our heritage and culture..i hope someone sees sense..best wishes Steve M ( an Irishman living in the UK )