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| "If you crave extreme thrills, raging water adventures, flying through the air, or just an enjoyable day with your family, National Aquatic Centre has Europe’s biggest and best rides and attractions with something for every member of the family! " |
Limerick developer Pat Mulcair is getting €2.8m a year in tax breaks, from "funding arrangements" put in place for the National Aquatic Centre (NAC), the High Court was told on Tuesday.
Pat Mulcair is the owner of the Roadbridge construction company and Motorways Investments. His involvement with the NAC was not public knowledge until last month, when it was revealed in court that Dublin Waterworld, the company selected to run the controversial development, had transferred ownership to Mulcair on the same day it signed a lease with Campus & Stadium Ireland (CSID).
The deal only came to light after the CSID took the issue to court in order to remove Dublin Waterworld as operator of the €62 million centre.
Campus Stadium Ireland Development Ltd, the State company which owns the €62m centre, has claimed the details of the arrangements with Mulcair, were not made known to it at the time it awarded the lease for the premises to Dublin Waterworld Limited (DWL) on 30 April 2003. On that same day, CSID also claims that, unknown to it, DWL assigned beneficial ownership of the lease to Mulcair, who in turn entered into an agreement with a DWL subsidiary, Dublin Waterworld Management Ltd, whereby the latter would manage the centre on Mulcair's behalf.
Mr John Moriarty, a director of DWL, said yesterday that he was reluctant to give certain documents about those funding arrangements to CSID because he had concerns those documents would be leaked to the media. He had previously given financial details to CSID and matters had appeared in the media. He did not want "purely commercial matters" between himself and Mulcair appearing in the press. Certain documents were provided to CSID but, he agreed, other documents were not.
Moriarty denied a suggestion by Denis McDonald SC, for CSID, that CSID was not told of the precise arrangements involving Mulcair because this would leave the State company in a difficult position in that the arrangement involved enormous tax benefits for a private citizen.
McDonald said that the capital allowances available for a corporate tenant such as DWL would be a lot less than those available for an individual such as Mulcair.
McDonald yesterday continued his cross-examination of Moriarty in the long-running action by CSID to secure forfeiture of the lease for the NAC which was awarded to DWL on 30 April 2003.
CSID alleges multiple breaches of the lease, including non-payment of rent and VAT liabilities. DWL is opposing the application.
Moriarty agreed that CSID had sought information from DWL on the funding proposals. He said CSID was procrastinating on the funding issue from late 2002 and he had explained the need to get funding arrangements in place as soon as possible.
Prior to the lease being signed, he had given CSID the management agreement and a declaration of trust agreement and said he was puttingfunding in place.
