The Irish State agency, the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), which has incurred huge losses from its part-ownership of the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend, South Dublin, cut its deficit in 2009 to €19m in 2009 from €213m in 2008. The agency is left with 34 Council/Executive Board members, 27 staff and interest accruing on its debt from its ill-fated 2006 property adventure.

The DDDA has taken a further writedown of over €10m on property assets, following a writedown of €186m in 2008 and the overall debt has risen from €48.5m in 2008 to €71m last year. It is the responsibility of taxpayers.

The operating deficit before impairments, for 2009 was €7.4m, down from €27m in 2008. The annual report published today shows that combining the operating loss and impairment losses and other writedowns, the Docklands Authority ended 2009 with a deficit in its consolidated income and expenditure account of €18.6m [2008: deficit of €213m]. The consolidated income and expenditure account includes the Docklands Authority’s share of the liability of the Irish Glass Bottle consortium ,Becbay Ltd.

At the end of 2009, the Docklands Authority had net assets in its own single entity balance sheet of €4m [2008: net assets of €26m]. At the end of 2009 the Authority had a net deficit in its consolidated balance sheet of €71m [2008: net deficit of €48.5m].

The chairman of the Docklands Authority, Professor Niamh Brennan, was appointed to the position in March of 2009. Speaking today she said that while good progress was made in stabilising the day-to-day financial performance of the Authority during 2009, she regretted that the Authority had not yet met its objective of operating at breakeven; “On behalf of the Executive Board, I would like to apologise for the fact that we’re not yet at breakeven. We will redouble our efforts to achieve this challenging target.”

As part of its financial recovery plan, the Authority has reduced the numbers employed by approximately 58% [from 64 employees in early ’09 to 27 employees now].

SEE: Finfacts article; Irish Glass Bottle site loans transferred to NAMA

Brennan said that the Authority’s work continued to be overshadowed by the legacy of past decisions - - in particular the Authority’s investment in the Irish Glass Bottle Site; “Clearly, these decisions have had an enormous detrimental impact on our operations and on our financial position in particular.”

She said that significant progress has been made in addressing past failures in corporate governance at the Authority; “there is zero tolerance for any compromise on corporate governance issues. We cannot undo controversial decisions of the past, but we can and will make sure such mistakes are never repeated.”

Brennan acknowledged that public confidence in the Authority has been seriously undermined; “It is hugely regrettable that the many excellent achievements of the Authority have been undermined as a result of well publicised controversies. My colleagues and I on the Executive Board are committed to doing all in our power to regain trust in the Authority which was so seriously undermined in recent years. Our guiding mission remains to complete the Docklands project for the community of the area and for taxpayers generally and we are determined to successfully finish out this project.”

She said that the Authority continued to address its financial weakness; “Our first priority must be to live within our means on a day-to-day operating basis and we are determined to achieve this as quickly as possible.”