Centre for Public Inquiry

It raised important issues of public concern including the manner in which the objections of the most senior officials charged with protecting the State's heritage were over-ruled by a former Minister.

[[3]][4] The report was also highly critical of former minister for the environment Martin Cullen who was advised that Dúchas, the department's heritage section, consistently expressed concern regarding the scale of the hotel, which was described as insensitive to a national monument in the State's Care.

He was backed by the CPI's board which stated that: "The Board of the Centre for Public Inquiry reiterates its full confidence in its Executive Director, Frank Connolly and his integrity" and said "...the claim made in Dáil Éireann by the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, that either Frank Connolly or the CPI, or both, could pose a threat to the security of the State is entirely without evidential basis, unsustainable, and totally untrue."

This shows a signal departure from principles of fair dealing and respect for justice to the individual citizen by the State which are absolute, save in the most exceptional cases and where legislated upon by the Oireachtas.

The criticism against Frank Connolly by McDowell and the Sunday Independent under the editorship of Aengus Fanning meant funding for the body from its financial backer Chuck Feeney's Atlantic Philanthropies was withdrawn.

The government has already come under pressure to explain why the state-owned Dublin Port Company, chaired by former councillor Joe Burke, a political associate of Bertie Ahern, the taoiseach, did not go through a tender procedure before entering into a joint venture with private operators to develop a 32-acre (130,000 m2) site[12] Without the necessary funding the CPI ceased to function.