The Comptroller and Auditor General has criticised the sale of State land at Glen Ding Woods in Co Wicklow to Roadstone Dublin Ltd in 1992 and has concluded that the Department of Energy did not conduct the matter "in an appropriate manner".
The 147-acre site in Blessington was sold by private treaty to the company, a subsidiary of CRH, of which the late Mr Des Traynor was chairman. Mr Traynor was personal financier to Mr Charles Haughey, who was Taoiseach at the time of the sale.
In a report published yesterday, the Comptroller, Mr John Purcell, said that the papers reviewed during his inquiry indicated that civil servants involved in the sale process "made judgments on the basis of the information available . . . and that Ministers acted at all times in accordance with Departmental advice".
He added that, from a business perspective, the Department could be considered to have acted in a way that ensured it obtained "a good price for the property".
However, although it was "unlikely" that Roadstone's bid of £1.25 million for the land would have been bettered, the Department failed to allow other interested parties to make a bid and should also have sought a second opinion on the land's value.
"The attraction of concluding the sale at what was considered a good price outweighed the imperative to act even-handedly, which is a basic principle when the State is doing business. In this regard, in my opinion, the Department did not conduct the sale in an appropriate manner", the report states.
"At a minimum, it should have been obvious that adjoining landowners in the sand and gravel business would have been potential purchasers."
The report was completed by the Comptroller and Auditor General just before Christmas. It followed a request last year from Mr Dick Roche, Fianna Fail TD for Wicklow, for an examination of the events surrounding the sale by private treaty. Last night Mr Roche said that the report had confirmed his worst suspicions, but it had not provided answers.
A spokesman for Roadstone Dublin Ltd said that the company could not make any comment until it had seen the report. It has always denied that Mr Traynor played any role in relation to the purchase of Glen Ding.
The Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, to whom the CAG's report has been sent, said he fully accepted the CAG's finding that "all concerned acted at all times in the best commercial interest of the State".