Centre For Public Inquiry - Closure

Closure

The CPI was a short-lived body. 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of Aengus Fanning meant funding for the body from its financial backer Chuck Feeney's Atlantic Philanthropies was withdrawn. Feeney met Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in August. The meeting was not arranged to specifically discuss the work of the CPI, but while the work of the centre was discussed, there was a discussion of Connolly. He also conducted a meeting with McDowell at which Connolly was again discussed. McDowell presented Feeney with documentation pertaining to the allegations. The final straw was the threat of legal action by Treasury Holdings in Dublin in connection with its third report which was under preparation. 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 Without the necessary funding the CPI ceased to function.

Tim Pat Coogan, a historian and journalist, stated in 2010 at the Parnell Summer School that it was lamentable that the Centre for Public Inquiry was forced to close.