THE chairman and senior executives of Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) are to be questioned by TDs about the agency’s close ties with Anglo Irish Bank.

Among the deals in which the two have been involved is the ¤412m purchase of the 24-acre Irish Glass Bottle Site in Ringsend. Anglo Irish was the banker for a deal in which the purchasers were DDDA and developer Bernard McNamara.

The DDDA also gave permission to developer Liam Carroll to build a ¤200m corporate headquarters for Anglo Irish on the former Brooks Thomas site near the O2 concert arena.

Sean Dunne, a rival developer, successfully challenged the decision in the High Court.

The Oireachtas environment committee is to call in DDDA directors to examine the deals it did with Anglo Irish, an investment bank that had to be bailed out by the government before Christmas.

The state injected ¤1.5 billion in capital in return for a 75% controlling stake after a collapse in the bank’s share price.

During the process, it emerged that the bank had given substantial loans to Sean FitzPatrick, its chairman, and Lar Bradshaw, a director, over eight years. These loans had been taken off the books of Anglo Irish before the annual report was issued so that they did not have to be declared. Both men resigned as directors.

Bradshaw was the founding chairman of the DDDA in 1997, and served two five-year terms. He was joined on the board’s authority by FitzPatrick in 1998. This overlapping of board membership has attracted the attention of the Oireachtas committee members.

“I want the Docklands Authority to come before our committee to review all aspects of its remit,” said Phil Hogan, Fine Gael’s environment spokesman. “We particularly need to know if there are any corporate governance issues or any implications for the taxpayer arising from the recent High Court decision against the authority in favour of the developer Sean Dunne.”

The committee will invite Paul Maloney, the DDDA chief executive, to make an appearance and may also ask its outgoing chairman, Donal O’Connor, to attend a hearing. O’Connor was recently appointed chairman of Anglo Irish by Brian Lenihan, the finance minister, and announced his intention to step down from the Docklands role to avoid any conflict of interest.

The financial regulator, Patrick Neary, took early retirement this weekend after an investigation into whether he knew about the €87m in Anglo Irish loans to FitzPatrick and Bradshaw. The investigation failed to resolve conflicts of evidence between Neary and officials in his office who believed he had been informed. It concluded that there had been a breakdown in internal communications in the regulator’s office, and in the appropriate regulatory response to the practices at Anglo Irish.

Hogan said: “I want an assurance that the DDDA involvement in relation to land deals in the area and all development proposals was carried out with proper authorisation and at arm’s length from the directors of the company at the time.”

Where concerns about the stewardship of state finances arise at Oireachtas committee hearings, members have the option of forwarding the matter to the Public Accounts Committee which can request an investigation from the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The DDDA’s aim is to “develop the Dublin Docklands into a world-class city quarter paragon of sustainable inner city regeneration” by 2012.

Court challenges, investments of questionable value and the economic downturn have so far thwarted achievement of this stated goal across much of the 1,300 acres under the authority’s remit.

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