The Labour Party leader, Mr Dick Spring, was involved in negotiations with a Saudi Arabian businessman at the centre of the Ray Burke passports-for-sale row, in an attempt to get him to invest £2 million in the proposed Kerry Technology Park, according to a newspaper report.
The Kerryman newspaper has reported that Mr Spring met representatives of Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz prior to the last general election in an attempt to get the Saudi businessman to invest. The KTP is a Shannon Development initiative to create a technology park in Tralee on 50 acres adjacent to the Tralee RTC's new campus outside the town. Shannon Development hopes the new technology park, modelled on the Plassey Technology Park beside Limerick University, could create 1,500 jobs in Mr Spring's North Kerry constituency by the year 2005.
This week, Shannon Development's assistant chief executive, Mr Kevin Thompstone, told members of Tralee Urban District Council that private investment in the £4 million project was essential. He said the project was unlikely to get Exchequer funding and added that the involvement of private investors would be required if it was to go ahead.
Mr Thompstone said they were in negotiations with one particular potential investor, but the Kerryman reported this week that the company was in negotiations with Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, who has already put £3 million into Kerry Airport, to provide the private portion of the finance required for the £4 million KTP project.
Negotiations with representatives of the sheikh have been ongoing for some time and the Kerryman reported that Mr Spring took an active part in the negotiations while he was Minister for Foreign Affairs.
This week Mr Thompstone said Shannon Development would exercise its option to purchase the property earmarked for the development before it moved onto the site or before the option expired.
A spokesman for Mr Spring said last night he couldn't confirm or deny the newspaper's claims as he had not seen the report.