Wexford businessman Mr James Stafford is no stranger to controversy.
In 1974, the property business he had started at the age of 25 collapsed, leaving bank debts. In 1980, he was one of the founding directors and major shareholders in the speculative oil exploration company, Atlantic Resources. But he later resigned from the company and sold his shares following disagreement with the then chairman, Dr Tony O'Reilly.
In 1985, An Taisce accused him of permitting one of Dublin's finest Georgian houses to fall into rack and ruin. The house - 29 Clare Street - had been owned by Mr Stafford since 1972.
At the Moriarty tribunal it emerged that in 1988 Mr Stafford advised Mr Conor Haughey on the setting-up and subsequent flotation of Feltrim Mining and that he invested £100,000 in the exploration company. In 1989, he was one of the founders of Century Communications, the company which won the licence for the first national independent radio station.
Described as one the golden boys of the late 1960s/early 1970s, Jim Stafford was the scion of a wealthy Wexford family which had made its money from coal and shipping. He was just 25 when he came to Dublin to carve out a career in the property business, living in the Gresham Hotel, which was then owned by his family.
One of his most active companies was Stonebridge. Its first scheme, completed in 1971, was a four-storey office block on Aston Quay. This was followed by Iveagh Court near Kelly's Corner on the South Circular Road.
He had ambitious plans. But in 1974 his property business collapsed when the value of the sites he had acquired at relatively high prices plummeted in the property recession.
Six years later he re-emerged on the Irish business scene as one of the founders and major shareholders in Atlantic Resources.