Pool firm in €1m arrears paid €4.5m to subsidiary

Very very dodgy, and what is interesting about this is that we all knew it sounded odd back when the contract was awarded.

A High Court judge has said it is “difficult to see” how €4.5 million could have been paid for unspecified services to a subsidiary of the company that secured the contract for the National Aquatic Centre during a time when the parent company was in rent arrears of some €1 million.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly made the comment after senior counsel Denis McDonald, for Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited (CSID), said he was concerned that the situation regarding management of the €62 million centre at Abbotstown was growing “murkier and murkier”.

CSID, whose shareholding is held by the Taoiseach and two Government Ministers, in 2003 awarded the contract for the State facility to Dublin Waterworld Limited (DWL).