User settings.xml is ignored when run on tomcat

We have set up continuum to run as a webapp on our development tomcat server. Tomcat is run as the user 'tomcat' which has a homedirectory at '/home/tomcat' in that home directory we have created '.m2/settings.xml' which redirects maven through our local proxy.

The settings works fine with maven2 when run as the tomcat user in a shell but when run through continuum we get an artifact resolution error which seems to indicate that the central and snapshots directories specified in settings.xml are not used.

This is the error:
"Missing artifact trying to build the POM. Check that its parent POM is available or add it first in Continuum."

This is the relevant part of our settings.xml:
<profile>
<id>default</id>
<repositories>
<repository>
<id>central</id>
<url>http://smith:9000/artifactory/repo</url>
<snapshots>
<enabled>false</enabled>
</snapshots>
</repository>
<repository>
<id>snapshots</id>
<url>http://smith:9000/artifactory/repo</url>
<releases>
<enabled>false</enabled>
</releases>
</repository>
</repositories>
<pluginRepositories>
<pluginRepository>
<id>central</id>
<url>http://smith:9000/artifactory/repo</url>
<snapshots>
<enabled>false</enabled>
</snapshots>
</pluginRepository>
<pluginRepository>
<id>snapshots</id>
<url>http://smith:9000/artifactory/repo</url>
<releases>
<enabled>false</enabled>
</releases>
</pluginRepository>
</pluginRepositories>
</profile>