Anglo Irish ‘culture’ infected the DDDA

logo_dddaAnglo Irish Bank’s “culture” influenced the way in which the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) “conducted its business”, according to DDDA chairwoman Niamh Brennan. As a result, she said, the authority “became very focused on development and used planning to facilitate and encourage development”. The authority’s property assets were written down by €186m last year, it was revealed last week. Brennan has also said that the “introduction of the Anglo Irish Bank into the authority was not done by government appointments, it was done in reverse”.

Lar Bradshaw became the first chairman of the DDDA and within a year Anglo’s Sean FitzPatrick had joined the board. “At that stage everything is fine. What happened next and… was replicated, was that Mr Fitzpatrick invited Mr Bradshaw to join his board [at Anglo],” Brennan said after the publication of the authority’s annual report and accounts.

She said that this had introduced the cross directorates “which then compromises the independence of the individual directors on the two boards and to a certain extent the two organisations and then when Mr O’Connor became chairman, within a few months he too was invited to join the board of Anglo”.

The Sunday Tribune