Dispute over boat trips to Skellig Michael resolved, court told
The High Court dispute over boat trips to Skellig Michael has been resolved.
Mr Justice Garrett Simons was told on Tuesday that the parties had reached a settlement and a hearing date for the main case in the dispute next month could be vacated.
Earlier this month the judge granted an application by the Office of Public Works (OPW) to lift an automatic suspension on landing at the Unesco heritage site and former monastic island which was also used as a film location for the Star Wars films , The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.
It meant boat trips to the island off the Kerry coast could begin for the summer 2025 season immediately.
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Annual landing permits issued by the OPW for mid-May to September were automatically suspended when two unsuccessful bidders for the licences brought a High Court challenge to the decision.
The OPW then had to apply to the court asking that the stay be lifted pending hearing of the substantive challenge.
The unsuccessful bidders, Atlantic Endeavour Ltd and SMBT Ltd trading as Skellig Michael Boat Trips, disagreed with the OPW interpretation of the legal effect of the automatic suspension.
They contended that there are a number of mechanisms open whereby landing permits might legitimately be granted to the successful tenderers for the balance of the 2025 season, while preserving their own right to challenge the allocation of landing permits for the 2026 and subsequent seasons.
Mr Justice Simons, following a hearing, ordered the stay be lifted.
He said his judgment entailed no finding whatsoever on whether the outcome of the tender process allows the OPW to confine the right to land passengers to the 15 successful tenderers for a five-year period.
The proper interpretation of the request for tender and associated documentation, and the legal consequences of the tender process, remain open for debate at the trial of the action, he said.
On Tuesday, David Dodd BL, for Atlantic and SMBT, said the matter had been resolved and a hearing date for July could be vacated. He said his clients were very happy with the outcome especially in light of the judge's decision earlier this month.
The OPW had agreed to pay his side's costs.
The judge struck out the case.
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"Expenses should be properly vouched. In an amateur sports club, I would have said Revenue will have a little bit of leeway, won't be too draconian in their approach. But here it just seems like the compliance has been extremely poor over a period of four, five, six years," he added. "I don't blame the players because if somebody's willing to offer you an incentive to play for them, you're going to take it," Greg Walsh said. In 2011, Parnells signed a lease on an apartment in Artane, which was used by some players. The club paid the rent at a cost of €1,550 per month. The club also paid some of the utility and laundry bills for occupants of the apartment. In just one year – 2014 - rent plus utilities on the apartment cost the club €22,978. At the same time, the club was paying utilities for the apartment, it was in arrears with the electricity bill for the clubhouse that was used by ordinary grassroots club members. Prime Time has seen a final demand letter from utility company Energia, threatening disconnection of Parnells' clubhouse supply due to arrears of €9,595 in April 2014. "Rental of an apartment for players is something extremely unusual in my experience," forensic accountant Jim Luby said. Professor Niamh Brennan pointed out that providing the apartment to the players was one of the things that would later lead to the club getting into trouble with the Revenue Commissioners. "I don't dispute anybody getting expenses for coming to the play for the club," former club chairman John Byrne said "but inducements to the level of accommodation, expenses, and significant expenses. It flies in the face of amateurism. It flies in the face of the GAA, what the GAA stands for, what we were brought up in the GAA." Gift and fuel cards In an indication that the club was seeing itself as both a commercial and voluntary organisation, Prime Time has also seen documents showing that in December 2014, gift cards - with a total value €9,000 - were given to almost 100 people involved in the club, including some players. In the same month, the club's financial statements showed a net liability of more than €1 million. Fuel cards were also supplied to certain people within the club, including players. Documents show that spending on five fuel cards regularly cost Parnells thousands of euro a month. In a four-week period over December 2011 and January 2012, the club paid out €3,369.52 for five fuel cards. Invoices show that the same cards were used to fill diesel and petrol at service stations. The cards, which were also used to pay for car wash services by some card holders, were not phased out until 2015. "Basically, the mileage, the expenses, the fuel cards, the accommodation, they were all classed as incentives to play for the club. And they were given these as benefits of playing for Parnells. But they were outrageous figures," said Greg Walsh. As the club was incurring these expenses, Parnells was not paying affiliation fees to Dublin County Board. Fractious relations with Dublin County Board All GAA clubs are required to pay annual affiliation fees to their county board. This money is typically generated from subscriptions paid by grassroots members. "The club was paying these massive expenses to these players, and they weren't paying affiliation fees to the Dublin County Board. They weren't paying the creditors, they weren't paying the tax man, they weren't paying the rates," Greg Walsh told Prime Time. "Yet they had money to pay for all these... expenses, which ran into the hundreds of thousands." The problems built up over time, to the point where in 2016 Dublin County Board was threatening to withhold from Parnells the allocation of tickets for the All-Ireland final, which it distributes as standard to all GAA clubs in the county. That September, the county board secretary emailed the club outlining that Parnells owed almost €68,000 in affiliation fees, insurances and registration fees. Two years later, the county board secretary emailed Parnells to point out that a commitment for the club to pay €10,000 per month had not been honoured. A later email stated: "Our finance committee are recommending that all insurance be withdrawn from Parnells with effect from 30th November [2018]. The situation is now intolerable from the County Board perspective." Internal warnings Internally, some people within the club were asking questions about Parnells' finances as far back as 2011. Former chairman John Byrne was so concerned that he wrote to then President of the GAA Christy Cooney to raise a red flag. The letter, dated 28 April 2011, noted "it is apparent that the financial well-being of the club is at risk". "The club managed to spend a total of €3,335,000 over a three-year period on running costs. This is a staggering amount," Mr Byrne added. "The threat to the continuing of Parnells as a club is real, and already the club's auditor has expressed concern that the club will not have the funds to complete the hall for which they are contractually obliged to build at a cost of €1 million." Mr Byrne told Prime Time "nobody came to the rescue". "I did have good engagement with Dublin County Board at different stages, trying to get some resolution," he said, adding, "the GAA knew about it. Dublin County Board knew about it. They were signatories of the finances. The grounds and the money were vested in the GAA, so they should have taken a better control of it." "There's a line of duty there and responsibility," says GAA journalist Dermot Crowe about the GAA and county board. "And at the same time, they can't manage or micromanage every situation or be everywhere to put out all the fires. But there is a sense that maybe they sat back a little bit and let Parnells have too much autonomy when the problems were brought through to their attention." "The eye was taken off the ball this time. I think the GAA has a certain responsibility." Greg Walsh also asked questions about the club's finances at the 2012 AGM. He then contacted journalist Dermot Crowe in the hope that highlighting the issues in the media would open debate within Parnells. Mr Byrne at the time asked if the club was insolvent. He was told the club was solvent. A few months later, the club declared a net liability of more than €1m. In the period 2008 to 2024 - where Parnells effectively went from boom to bust – over 50 people served as directors on the board of The Parnell GAA Club Company Ltd. The last financial statements filed were for 2018. While the Parnells board worked to address the club's annual losses and cost reductions were made, the club continued to file losses year-on-year, and the 2017 financial statements record that "maintaining a positive cashflow remains the greatest risk relating to Club commercial activities". Professor Niamh Brennan told Prime Time: "I wonder how much planning was done when they got the €22 million. I wonder how much risk management there was. I just think it hurtled ahead with inadequate checks and balances." When the club's finances came to the attention of the Revenue Commissioners in 2013, it resulted in Parnells paying a total settlement of €101,794. Underlining the financial stresses at the club, an internal email, dated 8 December 2014, spelled out the stark choice being made regarding creditors, "it's a straight match now for funds: Revenue or Suppliers." Forensic accountant Jim Luby said the club's accounts tell the story of "a business which bit off more than it could chew from 2012 onwards". "Losses in all years, non-payment of liabilities, including non-payment of PAYE and PRSI, which is something of a cardinal sin, and ending in liquidation. It points to very poor financial management." In 2016, three years after the first one in 2013, Parnells had another Revenue audit. "They were fined for the exact same things. So even though they were fined in 2013 for not taxing expenses, they continued to pay the expenses and benefits without tax up to 2016," Greg Walsh said. Professor Niamh Brennan said: "The funny thing was that they seemed to have kept good accounting records. It was so good that when the Revenue came in to do their audit, they found the records and they were able to identify clearly how much had been paid without the deduction of tax." "I find that just absolutely astonishing. The Revenue wrote them a very decent letter advising them on what to do, recommending that they make a voluntary disclosure to avoid interest and penalties. I was amazed that was ignored." The Stephen Cluxton letter In late September 2014, Parnells' most-decorated player, Dublin multiple All-Ireland winning goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton wrote a letter to all members of the club executive. He outlined the reasons why he had taken the highly unusual decision to regrade down, to play for the club's second team. He also detailed his "frustration at the direction in which the club is being lead". The letter stated: "I don't agree with the policy of head-hunting players" and "I don't agree that county players are treated to various perks". 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The auditors were right because eventually the company had to go into liquidation," Professor Niamh Brennan said. She said running the club at a loss, the Revenue audits and negative reports from the auditors are "all evidence of incompetence and just a lack of due care. People who are directors of a company are expected to exercise due care and skill, and I don't see much evidence of that". The collapse Things went from bad to worse for Parnells with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. To try and help the beleaguered club, Greg Walsh and Liam Quinn, among others, returned to the club executive. "In 2020, when I was part of the executive, we met with Croke Park in the hope of finding a solution to our problem…the club was in a really, really, bad way because they had debts of close on €2 million. They had no prospect of paying that money back. None of it." Greg Walsh. "And when we brought this matter up with Croke was put to me that they couldn't micromanage everything," Liam Quinn said. "I felt we had been backed into a corner and there was nothing we could were coming up against pressure that the Marists were threatening to take [the land] back…we couldn't overcome it because the debts were too high. And we were being threatened with the courts, with people that were owed money." Last November, Parnells released a statement saying the clubhouse and pitches were handed back to the Marist Fathers. 132 years after it was founded – in January this year - the club was wound up and a liquidator appointed. "I never wanted to be it's come to fruition because people weren't listening. It's come to fruition because people thought they were bigger than the GAA," John Byrne said. "The last thing I ever wanted was Parnells to not exist anymore. And it's really sad. It's a sad, sad time for anybody who was part of the Parnells family over the years." Following the liquidation of the club, some are angry with the top levels of the GAA hierarchy. "They are a club of 130 years in the association, but the GAA failed them, county board failed them. They should have ring-fenced that money. Number two, it should have been project managed by the GAA, not by Parnells, and that's a fatal error," Greg Walsh said. "It's made me angry because a GAA club is not just a sporting club. It's a community facility there where young people can go and they can make friends and be part of the community. So it serves a huge purpose in society. And that's been taken away from the Coolock-Artane area. And that is sad." "When you think that Parnells was the second-oldest club in Dublin, and they let us go to the wall," Tina Farrell said. When the Parnells GAA club went into liquidation, the list of unsecured creditors shows that the GAA was owed €475,000 and Dublin County Board owed €300,000. "The statement of affairs that I've seen for the business before it went into liquidation is showing overall debts of about €1.5m, but half of that is owed to the GAA. None of those creditors will receive any payment whatsoever," liquidation expert Jim Luby told Prime Time. "Where was the GAA? Where was head office? I would have thought that the GAA should have some kind of oversight. I'm not talking about micromanagement," Professor Niamh Brennan said. "Had the GAA exercised its overall authority, overseen the club, kept a watchful eye on it, this might not have happened. I mean, you could say the GAA has lost €22m. That's a lot of money." A statement issued to Prime Time on behalf of the GAA and the Dublin County Board, stated: "The Association, at central and county level, has worked with the successive club executive committees over that time and have explored multiple options to support the club in securing the viability and future of Parnell's GAA Club but unfortunately despite the best efforts of all concerned, this was not possible to deliver." It added that the GAA offers support and advice to all 1,600 clubs as required "but ultimate responsibility for a club's affairs and related governance matters rests with the membership and executive officers of each individual GAA club." "This includes any interest a club may have in lands, purchased or leased which are held in trust by individual trustees who do not hold any propriety interest in the lands." In late January, a new club called Pobal Parnell was formed. The new entity does not have access to the clubhouse or playing pitches in Coolock. "There were a lot of good, genuine people in Parnells that we shouldn't lose sight of that. They were concerned about if they'd have a club and all that. We have to understand that there's still a lot of very good volunteers... and they were still committing and they had the right values at heart," Dermot Crowe said. "That's Pobal Parnell now…It's about survival now," Liam Quinn added, "it's gone back to the very basics and continuing on with basic facilities, and I suppose in some sense, starting from scratch." "I think they have an upward struggle. I wish them the best."
