Irish Politics

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So asked Prime Time in September 1999. Of course the names were released… three years later. I recently put the entire Ansbacher report back online, after seven years of it being unavailable. I also posted the list of all account holders.

What is interesting about this, is the voxpop at the start. There was anger, there was a demand for accountability. It pretty much never happened. Indeed one of the Ansbacher account holders, Clayton Love Jnr, only this year made full settlement of €1.4m with the Revenue. There was no jailing or prosecutions.

Accountability? You must be joking.

I am now back from hiatus.

Given the day that’s in it, as the Moriarty Tribunal reconvenes for more public sittings, it might be worth noting the following.

Financier Dermot Desmond first became involved with Denis O’Brien when his venture capital firm IIU underwrote the Esat Digifone consortium’s bid for the state’s second mobile phone licence to the tune of £6m in 1995. Explaining his reasoning for assuming a risk other institutional investors would not, Mr Desmond told the Moriarty tribunal in 2004 how he had relished the challenge it presented to him. “Unlike the conditional interest expressed by the proposed institutional investors, I was prepared to take the downside as well as the up.

“Denis may be a Goliath now but he was a David then and I like helping the Davids of this world,” he said. The risk Mr Desmond took paid off handsomely, with IIU going on to realise some €100m from its stake in Esat following the company’s sale in 2000.

And this week:

Esat Digifone, founded by businessman Denis O’Brien, said it would be 40 per cent owned by O’Brien’s Communicorp group, and 40 per cent owned by Norwegian group Telenor. The remaining 20 per cent would be placed with four named institutional investors, it said.

However, in April 1996, as the department was preparing to issue the licence, it was told the institutional investors had been replaced by Dermot Desmond’s IIU Nominees Ltd.

The civil servants involved in the process sought legal advice as to whether the licence could be issued to Esat, given the divergence between its shareholding then and the intended shareholding outlined in the original bid.

In time, the licence was issued. The tribunal has made adverse findings against the department related to this. The legal advice furnished to the department came from Richard Nesbitt SC, a member of its legal team at the tribunal.

IIU Nominees was registered as a company in November 1995. In June 1997 a charge was registered against the company, via an overdraft facility provided by AIB.

Here is the charge:

I am not sure how this charge relates to the current story, but it is all interesting nonetheless.

Here is the full document:

IIU Nominees debt charge

I can’t say I’m not pleased. Fianna Fail policies since 1997 have bankrupted the country. I am pleased the auctioneer councillor I ran from my door, Maurice Ahern (Cork), appears to have failed to get elected.

I will be relatively quiet for the rest of June, I overloaded on the Ryan Report/Election/Anglo/Party funding stories. Time for a time out.

From the RTE archives. September 30, 2003. Michael Woods is interviewed about the indemnity deal. Up to now it’s been sitting somewhere without a link on the RTE website, I pulled it off.

First, an analysis of the C&AG’s annual report 2002, which questioned the indemnity deal:

Then, the Michael Woods interview. Hold onto your hats.

Miriam: The report suggested today we could be looking at a bill of 1 billion. Was that a good deal you brokered?

Woods: That is a guesstimate by the Comptroller and Auditor General. He has made his own sums up and says what he thinks might be the case. As you read out there, he says that the average is going to be 96,000 and multiplied it by 10,000 and all this kind of thing, and got the figure.”

Actually even the Comptroller was off by a fair bit. It turned into 15,000 victims of abuse, and a €1.2bn bill. Mathematics, Mr Woods, mathematics. Here is the report being talked about. But then what would the Comptroller know about figures compared to Dr Woods?

Some more choice quotes:

“The State carries the major responsibility, there’s no doubt in my mind about that”

“The country will be glad in time that this shadow on the people of Ireland has been lifted – because it was done by the people”

Just to emphasise that final bit, I recorded the last 2 minutes in a separate video:

No, Mr Woods, it was done by the religious. And you blame us.

You did a secret sweetheart deal with the religious. Resign your seat and disappear with your gold plated pension. I never want to hear from you again you fool. You were either incompetent or complicit.

Resign.

I watched this on Questions & Answers last night. I can’t add anything.

Take a look at this explanatory note:

Conditions to be Satisfied to Avail of the Section 54 Exemption

4.1 Revenue will now apply the gift tax exemption under the “public purposes” provisions of section 54 CATA, 1976, to political donations that meet the various conditions and requirements under the Electoral Acts. These include the requirements that the donation;

• is made to a political party, a member of either House of the Oireachtas, a candidate at a Dail, Seanad, European or Presidential Election,
• does not exceed the maximum permissible limit of €2,539.48 (£2,000) for individual politicians/candidates and €6,348.69 (£5,000) for political parties in any given year or in the context of any specific Dail, Seanad, European or Presidential Election,
• is not anonymous (unless less than €126.97(£100)) or prohibited (e.g. from a person residing outside Ireland other than an Irish Citizen).
• is of a type set out in section 22(2)(a)(i) of the Electoral Act, 1997 e.g. a donation of money, a donation of property or goods, the supply of a service free or for less than full commercial price, etc. and • that the donation is expended on political purposes (as defined in section 49(b) of the Electoral Act, 2001 – see Appendix) whether in the context of an election or otherwise.

Did Fianna Fail pay gift tax on the Durkan New Homes donation?

On Monday, an Irish Examiner report revealed that Fianna Fail had failed to disclose donations from some of the country’s biggest developers: Ballymore Properties and Durkan New Homes. The news has been greeted with apparent silence elsewhere in the media. I have to wonder why.

It strikes me as important given that electoral law looks to have been broken, and Fianna Fail have responded with rather nonsensical denials that anything untoward has happened.

The information was revealed only because of a series of requests and an FOI request, that up until this year, had never been performed by anyone. Other companies turned up in the trawl, including:

Mosney Irish Holidays
MP Administration
Bridford Properties
Omega Aviation Services
Beechill Growers
Airscape Limited
Harcourt Developments Limited
Garland Homes
Harte Designs
Burgrove Limited
Williams Motor Warehouse
Seabass Limited
Poplar Linens Trading Company
O’Riain Associates International
McGettigan Construction Limited

These donations were declared under the Companies Act and Electoral Act, but the amounts given were not known until this week. They are not the only companies.

I know probably more than most that looking at a list of limited companies is not very appealing. So it is perhaps helpful to look behind the companies, who directs them, and then trawl newspaper archives to see what business they have been involved in.

Ballymore is famous enough, Sean Mulryan is one of the country’s best known developers. But what of the others? Let’s start digging. First up: Burgrove Limited.

[Disclosure: I work for the Irish Examiner]

Where PDFs of reports come from scanned documents, with this all over the place:

Anthony rightly lambasts the Government on the censored Monageer Report.

Can anyone really say we live in a properly functioning democracy?

Dug up from the RTE archives. Brings back memories, or perhaps new material for younger readers. Unfortunately, nothing was done about it.

The words of the Revenue ring hollow after publication:

Hopefully this list is about to get much longer:

Adobe Acrobat is needed to view most of these documents. Download it here.

Planning Tribunal
First Interim Report (.pdf) (1997)
Second Interim Report (.pdf) (2002)
Third Interim Report (.pdf)
Fourth Interim Report (.pdf) (2004)

Morris Tribunal

First report (Report on explosives ‘finds’ in Donegal)(.pdf) (2004)
Second report (Report on the investigation into the death of Richard Barron and the extortion calls to Michael and Charlotte Peoples) (.pdf) (2005)
Third report (Ardara)(.pdf)(2006)
Fourth report (Burnfoot)(.pdf)(2006)
Fifth report (Silver Bullet)(.pdf)(2006)

Moriarty Tribunal

First report of the Moriarty Tribunal (.pdf) (2006)

Ansbacher

Report of the Inspectors Appointed to Enquire into the Affairs of Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd

Comptroller and Auditor General

DIRT report (.doc)
PPARS report (.pdf) (2005)
Bord na gCon report (.pdf) (2008)

High Court Inspector

National Irish Bank Report (.pdf) (2004) (minus appendices)

Garda

Dean Lyons Report

The Government Publications Office does not appear to have it. Does anyone have a copy of the report?

Further to the launch of Kildare Street, I have been attempting to build a digital database of important documents and reports.

For now the provisional list is over at Public Inquiry, but I hope to either build a dedicated website to house these documents, or perhaps wikify the whole thing.

I recently got my hands on the Ansbacher Report (all 560Mb of it), and will upload the entirety. I went to the Government Publications Office yesterday looking for the Beef Tribunal report, but it was nowhere to be found and they directed me to the Department of Agriculture of all places. Other reports to be included will be the McCracken Tribunal report, the Dean Lyons report, the Ferns report, among others.

Feel free to suggest any other reports that should be included.

You may have already come across it by now but I am pleased to announce – after the Herculean efforts of one John Handelaar – that the Irish version of TheyWorkForYou.com, Kildare Street, is now open for business in beta form.

I hope you all find it very useful, as I will.

Here is the Memo of Association. The firm is directed by property developer Enda Hunston. Taoiseach Brian Cowen is related to the firm in this story.

I wonder what Mr Hunston’s history is.

In March 2004, Mr Hunston claimed his signature had been forged on a joint investment agreement over a €3.3m hotel and fishing lodge development in Mayo. His co-investors were former Esat Digifone chief executive Barry Moloney, Mr Moloney’s brothers Alan and James, and British venture capitalist Bruce Dunlevie.

All four denied that they had forged his signature. It was also suggested that the contractor who had been awarded the tender to build the development, was not the contractor (Mitchell O’Grady), Mr Hunston wanted. Apparently Mr Hunston had met Alan Moloney while working at Norwich Union. He had never met Barry Moloney until the events that led to the proceedings began. The case centred on Mount Falcon in Mayo.

In late March, the case was settled, with the four defendants accepting that the signature on the document was not Mr Hunston’s, though they were not responsible for placing the signature on the document. Alan Moloney claimed that Mr Hunston had also admitted to him that he had handed confidential documents to Mitchell O’Grady relating to the tendering process. Mr Moloney said Mr Hunston had apologised for this. He said Mr Hunston had claimed there would be serious consequences if Mitchell O’Grady did not get the contract, and Mr Moloney had taken this as a threat. He asked Mr Hunston to elaborate, where, he said, Mr Hunston replied that the project would have lost the political connections of Mitchell O’Grady.

Mr Hunston denied this.

Bernard Mitchell was involved with Mitchell O’Grady, but Mr Hunston denied there was any payback promised. All of Mr Mitchell’s firms are now dissolved. They were:

BERNARD MITCHELL PLANT HIRE LIMITED
EUROFRONT CONSTRUCTION LIMITED
M & OG CONTRACTORS LIMITED (Mitchell O’Grady)
MASTER OAKS DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED

The Irish Times reported that Mr Hunston’s speciality, when working as a mortgage and pension advisor in the late 1990s, was investment in tax-designated properties.

As well as being director of Carr Mills Property, Mr Hunston is also a director of:

King Oaks Developments Ltd
Hunston Aviation Ltd
Hunston Group International Property Consultants Ltd
Global Financial Index Ltd

He also appears to be a director of

Reventer Holdings Ltd

I got my hands on a PDF version of the report. It was nowhere to be found on the internet until today.

There are dozens of appendices, which I hope to add soon.

This is part of my effort to digitise all previous tribunal reports and High Court investigations. New Years’ resolution and all that jazz.

Developers in bid to push ahead with rezoning of 280 acres in west Dublin

Screamed the headline in the Sunday Tribune a few weeks back. It reminded me of some of the headlines that surrounded rezonings back in the early 1990s. As it turns out, it is not that far removed.

The article says:

Although councillors voted by 19 votes to two against motion put forward by a Progressive Democrat councillor in support of the development two years ago, Sandymark Ltd said it believes its new proposal to rezone some 280 acres of land “ticks all the boxes” and is confident it will be passed.

However, deputy county manager Tom Doherty, who strongly opposed the “entirely inappropriate” previous plans in a report to the council at the time, has told the Sunday Tribune that “it is not considered that there is any reason to vary the views set out in that report”.

Sounds familiar. Interestingly:

The lands include approximately 30 acres owned by Laurence Harney, a brother of former Progressive Democrat leader and health minister Mary Harney, who has said in the past she has “no beneficial interest whatsoever” in the transaction.

It continues:

The land is owned by a group of local landowners and Sandymark, and is located between Newcastle and Rathcoole, not far from Citywest and the commuter towns of Lucan and Clondalkin.

In a document circulated to local residents in Newcastle recently, Sandymark claims that “despite the current economic crisis, the need and demand for houses will return”. It says it hopes to begin construction in late 2011 or early 2012.

A spokeswoman said the number of residential units envisaged had decreased from around 4,000 to 2,500 over 15 years, while the number of acres to be rezoned had fallen from 425 to around 280.

Gosh it’s like a timewarp. No doubt any rezoning of this land would result in much higher land values, so Sandymark and Mr Harney would gain much from a decision by South Dublin County Council to rezone. I was curious about this crowd Sandymark, so I went a digging.

There are actually two Sandymark companies, Sandymark Investments Ltd and Sandymark Construction Ltd.

Sandymark Investments is located at Greenogue Industrial Estate, Co Dublin. Sandymark Investments recently registered a mortgage, financed by Bank of Ireland, for the purchase of lands at Ashbrooke, known as the Murphy lands, owned by Michael Murphy and Michael Murphy Jnr.

Here is the register of the mortgage.

But who owns Sandymark Investments? Well it’s owned by two more companies, Maple Nominees and Maple Secretaries. Here is the memorandum of association for the company.

And who owns the Maple firms? Well I had a look at the books of Maple Secretaries, purely out of curiosity. The directors are listed here. That would be the same solicitors listed on the forms for Sandymark. And note that the address given for the Maple companies is the same address as the solicitor firm in question.

Laurence K Shields
Edmund Butler
Hugh Garvey
Gerry Halpenny
Emmett Scully
Alan Browning (Secretary)

Now one of those names piqued my interest, Hugh Garvey. It rang a bell so I went a Googling. They all work as partners at Mr Shields’ firm on Upper Mount Street. I recognised Hugh Garvey because he represented certain people at the Tribunals.

Of course this got me really interested. So I went digging further.

Well look here. Back in 2002, Sandymark Investments gave £1,000 to one Councillor Colm McGrath (Ind but formerly of FF). If that name sounds familiar, it’s probably because it is.

Mr McGrath is one of the councillors Frank Dunlop claims to have given bribes to. Indeed, Mr McGrath admits to receiving “political donations” from Dunlop. Mr McGrath made several appearances at the Mahon Tribunal, as you can see here. One of the donations involved Dunlop handing Mr McGrath £2,000 cash in a copy of the Irish Times.

He failed to get elected to South Dublin County Council in the 2004 election.

Mr McGrath has an interesting history. He was one of the Top Fifteen back in the early 1990s, or among the top councillors proposing or seconding Section Fours and material contravention motions between 1985 and 1991. He backed the rezoning of the Quarrvale lands from the beginning, lands at the centre of the Quarryvale II module at the Tribunal, made infamous by Bertie Ahern’s alleged involvement.

In October 2007, Frank Dunlop told the Mahon Tribunal that property developer Owen O’Callaghan paid off a debt of £10,700 for Colm McGrath when he was facing a court judgment.

Another interesting bit in all this: Mary Harney’s brother. Mr Harney was listed as a defaulter by the Revenue in 2001.

Of course I am not suggesting anything untoward in the behaviour of Sandymark. They are seeking to rezone the lands, and are doing so in an entirely legal manner. The donation to Mr McGrath was also declared, so all is above board. I was just interested in the names and the faces.

Just for the record:

Category A: List of persons who beneficially owned funds in Ansbacher 281
Category B: List of persons who were clients of Ansbacher through College Trustees
Category C: List of persons who were clients of Ansbacher through Jack Stakelum
Category D: List of persons whose sole involvement was the establishment of Ansbacher trusts to which they never transferred any assets
Category E: List of persons for whom Ansbacher conduced business other than the holding of funds
Category E (i): List of persons to whom Ansbacher provided loans in the ordinary course of business
Category E (ii): List of persons provided with an Ansbacher company for the purpose of purchasing property
Category E (iii): List of persons who owned Ansbacher-managed companies which were potential beneficiaries of the Lynbrette Trust

Category A

Roger Ballagh (Solicitor)
Mrs Frances Elizabeth Barrett
John Barrett
Jesus Barrios
Maria Barrios
Tony Barry (CRH chairman)
Sir John Birkin
Captain RG Bryce
John Byrne (Property developer, received 17.5m in back to back loans)
Patrick Carty
Beatrice Carty
DHA Cecil
Ronald Chambers (Robert Wilson & Sons)
Samuel Clarke (Crampton Housing)
Henry Cleeve (Co Killkenny)
Patrick Clonan
Read the rest of this entry »

Holy crap, as they say. #picturegate is the number one trending topic on Twitter, and the Irish internet community is now officially up in arms.

How will the Government Press Office deal with this PR disaster? Send me an email? Demand YouTube take down the vids? The world has moved on since the days of Haughey lads. We can’t be silenced.

It started with a pic…

Read the rest of this entry »

Actually, strike the previous post.

Who the fuck do the Government think they are?

Damien has some excellent suggestions, and the Irish blogosphere is up in arms. Let’s start by posting Alan’s excellent cartoon of Mr Cowen.

As Suzy says, we well and truly live in a Banana Republic. RTE has apologised for broadcasting the news. Last time I checked, Brian Cowen was a servant of the people, not their master. This follows the Maire Hoctor debacle on Primetime. RTE are now officially lapdogs of the Government.

Here’s a question. If the Financial Regulator was captured by the banking industry, has RTE News been captured by the Government – the one it is supposed to watch?

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

What a crock. It was launched on Prime Time last night by Aileen O’Toole, co-founder of The Sunday Business Post.

In submitting an idea you also agree to its publication in any form by The Ideas Campaign. By submitting the idea you are thereby granting The Ideas Campaign the perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right to use, reproduce, copy, modify, edit, translate, publish, display, post, transmit, distribute or part company with your submitted idea without any compensation to you, anonymously or in the aggregate, for internal or external purposes, alone or as part of other works in any form, media or technology.

The Ideas Campaign reserves the right without notice and for any reason not to respond to or use ideas or comments submitted to The Ideas Campaign. Visitors who do not give accurate email addresses or complete the relevant forms fully will not have submissions considered.

So you setup a website to get ideas from the public. And by so doing, the public loses any right to profit from their ideas, and hands them over to the website they submitted the idea to.

Eh, no.

The Pin discusses.

Irish companies laid off 6,337 workers last month, an increase of 123% on the year- earlier period, the government said today.

And the sobering bit:

Irish alcohol consumption declined 6% in 2008, the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland said in an e-mailed statement today.

Alcohol consumption in Ireland is now back to 1997 levels, the group said. The amount of cider consumed fell 11%, while liquor volumes dropped 7.7% and beer volumes fell 5%.

Sorry I didn’t get the video. But you can’t win ‘em all…

Noel Dempsey, T.D., Minister for Transport

Friends, tonight is one of the most important nights in Fianna Fáil’s history.

Each one of us here knows why. Each and every one of us knows the human truth of the collapse of the global economy. The families under extreme pressure. The constituents who have played by the rules, done the hard yards and can’t believe what’s happened to them.

They can’t believe it, and it fills them with anger. Deep, deep anger. Much of that anger is directed at us. And it will continue to be directed at us.

Ireland has been swamped by a global disaster that has been greatly complicated, on the home front, by economic treason.

There’s no nicer way to describe what’s come out of one of the banks. It was economic treason. No more. No less.

And, in common with people the length and breadth of this country, I welcome the Garda action earlier this week.

I welcome action against people who have used the Irish economy as their own personal piggy bank. And the problem, let us be clear, is one of reckless endangerment of a nation.That’s not an exaggeration. That’s not “over the top.”

The fact is, that a small number of sophisticated money manipulators endangered the economic survival of our people.

There’s no parallel in history for the damage they have done to this nation – except perhaps Cromwell.

And even Cromwell was motivated by reasons other than personal gain.

I said that we must condemn them. We are the party of Government. We have been chosen by a majority of voters repeatedly over the past quarter of a century. We have, as a consequence, been in Government for the majority of that time.

Of course leaders in every sector of Irish society know prominent members of the Fianna Fail party. It’s inevitable. People in banking, people in construction would know, would have dealt with senior Fianna Fail figures down through the years.

But that does not amount to guilt-by-association.

* Knowing someone does not mean you share their vices or their practices

* Knowing a banker or a developer does not mean you tolerate bad practice or rule-breaking.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it up to here with cheapshot assumptions about members of this Party.

I categorically refute the unsupported rumours that Fianna Fáil approved of bank directors giving themselves huge loans or breaking any rules.

The smear that “if we had known, we’d have approved of such practices” is precisely that. A smear. We didn’t. We wouldn’t. We never will.

It’s important, also, for all of us to re-affirm the reality: that Fianna Fál still stands for what it has always stood for:

A Republican Party in the real, true, deep sense of that word. A Party that protects the weak and vulnerable. A Party that stands up to vested interests. A Party that values hard work and enterprise.

These values are more important than ever at a time when this Government is dealing with a complex new situation that gets more complicated and difficult by the day.

We are making choices. Hobson’s choices. Choices between bad – and worse. If we are not brutally effective – quickly – in fixing our finances, others will do it for us.

If that were to happen we could protest, but nothing would change. If outsiders dictate our economic policies, we won’t be worried about a pension levy.

We’d be looking at pay cuts – right across the board – of 30%. Or 40%. Or worse. We’d be looking at serious job losses. We will fight to prevent that happening to Ireland. We will fight to ensure that we continue to control our economic destiny.

But preventing it causes huge – and justified anger – as individuals and families who’ve worked hard, find themselves poorer than they should be.

That’s the truth, and we must not deny it. Much of that anger is directed at us. That’s the truth, and we must not shirk it. Much of that anger will continue to be directed at us. That’s the truth, and we must live with it.

I’m not saying it’s not painful. It’s very painful. It’s personally and collectively painful. But it’s nothing like as painful as the problems facing workers, facing parents, facing students, facing older people, right around this country at this time.

It’s our duty to let people out there know that we understand the personal realities of the recession. Not to minimise them. Not to make empty optimistic noises and pretend they change those realities.

But it is also our duty and our responsibility to take this country by the scruff of the neck and point it towards recovery.

We are the party of Government. We have the capacity to turn this economy around. We can do it. And – more to the point – we’re the only party that will do it!!

Fianna Fáil in Government is faced with the worst conditions any Irish Government has ever faced. They’re the worst conditions because of the better life all of us had become used to.

But that’s a core strength of our party – its capacity to deal with tough times and set course for better times. We’re a party of practical vision. It was practical vision that led Sean Lemass to look outward, not inward. To see possibilities, not problems. To believe that, from a standing start, this country could become an exporter of more than cattle on the hoof.

Sean Lemass didn’t just create the IDA. He created a new mindset for a nation. A mindset that acknowledged where we were but also what we could become. He was the most practical of men. And the most visionary.

Throughout every downturn one party and only one party has taken the decisive action needed to rescue the Irish economy.

Fianna Fáil.

In the face of every challenge, one party and only one party has faced the pain, taken the punishment and led this nation forward.

Fianna Fáil.

It is important that we don’t forget that. It’s vital that we are confident in the face of these difficult circumstances. It’s crucial that, at this challenging time in our history – we are seen to stand for the best of what we are.

And what’s that?

What’s the best of what we are? I’ll tell you what it is.

At our core, Fianna Fail has a resolute commitment to people. Let us not forget – or let others forget – that this is the party that led the way to an open, liberal, educated and ambitious Ireland. When things go wrong, Fianna Fáil has fight in it. In tight times, the differences between us become our great strengths.

We cannot be defeated – because we absolutely refuse to accept the possibility of defeat. Right now, for example, we need to better explain what we’re doing. Why? So that we bring the people with us in our determination to recover from current setbacks and build a great future.

I said at the outset that this is a significantly different Ard Fheis. A signally important, an historic Ard Fheis. An Ard Fheis at a critically important point in the ongoing story of the Fianna Fail party.

This Ard Fheis presents each and every one of us with the opportunity to remind ourselves of our strengths. It gives us the chance to re-establish some realities. And let me tell you the most important of those realities. It’s this. Whatever problems we have and wherever the blame may fall for those problems: this party and this Government is – by a mile – the best that can be offered to the nation at this time.

We have the experience. We have the knowledge. We have the commitment. And we are led by a man who cares – first, last and always – about his people. About our people.

Brian Cowen has spent the last few months delivering in a dire situation. He has watched, across the floor of the house, the Opposition Parties not delivering. Not delivering principled opposition.

Instead, they have delivered cheap dramatics – not caring about the consequences of what they’re saying.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party will some day regret the way they danced around a wounded economy. They will some day regret the way they happily spread a dangerous message to the world about a country they claim to love and to serve.

They have not served Ireland well in the last few weeks.

They have not served Ireland, and they should be ashamed of their opportunism.

There are few certainties in politics, but one thing is certain, at the moment. The temporary popularity they now enjoy will not last.

It will not last because the people of Ireland spot cynicism a mile off, and they know the difference between random rants and real leadership.

Real leadership is what Sean Lemass personified.

At any time, good leadership is important. But at times of massive sudden change and challenge, good leadership becomes more than just important. It becomes pivotal.

Good leadership in challenging times is what allows challenges to be surmounted and triumphs achieved.

We in Fianna Fáil have always had that kind of leadership. Great leadership in challenging times demands discipline and attention to detail. Real leadership is about blunt honesty and fair dealing.

Real leadership is about clear direction and a deep concern for people. But it’s also about a marvellous impatience – a “get on with it” attitude – and a determination to never to give in. Real leadership is about trusting your own people, because you know they want you to deliver – as you promised. Real leadership is about being steeped in Fianna Fáil’s values. About living those values while driving this nation forward to a better future.

In Fianna Fáil, we know real leadership when we see it – and we respond to it with a passion.

Now is the time to demonstrate that passion. Now is the time to demonstrate that this party, the party of Government, is led by the right man at the right time.

It is my privilege to call on you to demonstrate Fianna Fail’s pride and purpose and confidence in the man who must lead us through challenge to national recovery.

Our friend. Our leader. Our Taoiseach.

Please welcome – Brian Cowen.

Made it to City West… very quick drive up. Myself and Suzie are here in one of the press rooms. I will try and update this post as I go, as well as update on Twitter. You can follow everyone who is either here, or commenting on the Ard Fheis, at Scibble Live.

Just recorded this video of Cowen leaving. Media scrum etc. Somehow I ended up standing next to Mr C several times. You can hear his wife say “Ride the storm” near the start.

As I was saying on Twitter, there were two over-riding emotions while I sat watching Coughlan, Lenihan and Hanafin. The first was a lack of taking responsibility. The recession just happened. Fianna Fail were unfortunate enough to be in power and have to make the hard decisions. But there’s no sense that any of the problems the economy faces were caused by 11 years of Fianna Fail policies. The property bubble was the fault of the banks and “subprime” lenders; gamblers bet on assets increasing in value – but Fianna Fail have nothing to do with the current problems. I don’t buy it.

Second was the preaching. Watching many of the speakers, it felt like being at Mass. Sermons are delivered, and the faithful clap. More sermons, more clapping. Repetition about the current economic climate and international factors. Very little vision, and very little in the way of a sense of blame. Fianna Fail simply fell victim to global economic circumstance…

Second video of the Cowen exit. Best bit is Johnny Ronan from Treasury Holdings. “Howya Johnny,” says Cowen, as they shake hands. Jaysus it’s Johnny Foley, a FF councillor. Head off each other!

15.45: Not much going on, thanks to a gap on speaking and some tea for the bloggers and journos. I’m feeling the effects of getting up at 6.45 this morning.

16.40: Dermot Ahern answers some questions for the press in the media centre at City West. Good questions on white collar crime. The sound quality isn’t the best at the start… apologies.

18.30 I just finished reading Cowen’s speech as it will be delivered later tonight. It feels like the usual stuff, but I guess it depends on how it is delivered. The biggest news to me is new banking regulation, which will be highlighted in the early part of the speech.

19.45 in the press area, waiting for the main event. Coughlan speaking now.

20.00 Tenors singing after an appearance by our former esteemed leader. *cough*. Fields of Athenry on now…

Cowen’s speech:

Banking commission

Cowen says he will create a new Central Banking Commission. Basically the Financial Regulator is being reintegrated with the Central Bank. A reversal of policy since 2002. They say they ill base regulation on the Canadian model. Followed by usual stuff about reform, independence and transparency. There will also be a new Head of Banking Regulation – with an “international reputation”.

Alongside this will be the Financial Services Consumer Agency. This will be a merge of the consumer division of the Financial Regulator and the Office of the Financial Ombudsman.

“This initiative will mark an end to a sorry chapter in Irish banking history,” says Mr Cowen.

The sorry chapter that was partly, or even largely, created by lacklustre regulation encouraged by successive FF governments. Most recently Ahern, McCreevy and Cowen have all allowed this situation to exist, despite advice to the contrary. McCreevy encouraged a light hand – and FF’s attitude to regulation is clearly evidenced by the lack of new laws, or resources, for the prosecution of white collar criminals after successive banking scandals. Despite dozens of warning signs, and wholescale fraud on the party of some of our major bank, nothing was done in response. No-one lost a job, not to mention sent to prison.

We will see what this new regulation will mean, but it strikes me as again moving around the deck chairs to dress it up as something new with a new name and a new logo. It will still be the same staff, minus the “international” dimension.

From Dempsey’s speech:

“The fact is, that a small number of sophisticated money manipulators endangered the economic survival of our people.

There’s not parallel in history for the damage they have done to this nation – except perhaps Cromwell.

And even Cromwell was motivated by reasons other than personal gain.”

Just in time for the Ard Fheis. It is Obamaified. They are also on Flickr (no photos up yet), Twitter, YouTube (three videos?) and Facebook. I guess we all have to start somewhere.

Somehow, though, it all just feels empty. Or maybe a better word would be devoid of something.

Ah. That’s what it was. Ethics.

Former Anglo director Gary McGann has resigned as chairman of the Dublin Airport Authority. Gary McGann was among five non-executive directors who resigned from Anglo on January 19 — just before the Government took steps to nationalise it.

In the 1980s Mr McGann worked in the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General before joining LM Ericsson and then drinks firm Gilbeys of Ireland.

In April 1994, Mr McGann became chief executive of Aer Lingus.

In December 1994, McGann missed out on becoming a director of Aer Lingus when then Transport Minister Brian Cowen made 10 appointments to State boards during his last week in office.

Cowen appointed Michael McDonnell, an assistant secretary at the department, to the board of Aer Lingus. It had been expected Mr McGann would fill the vacancy.

In May 1998 Mr McGann left Aer Lingus to become chief financial officer at Jefferson Smurfit.

In 1999 Anglo Irish bought Smurfit Paribas for £30m.

On January 1, 2000, Mr McGann succeeded Patrick Wright as president and chief operations officer at Smurfit Group. Later that month he joined the board of Smurfit.

In early 2002 he became chief executive of Smurfit.

On January 21, 2002, Mr McGann was appointed to the board of Anglo Irish Bank, along with Tom Browne (then head of its wealth management division).

In 2007, Mr McGann was named as a shareholder in ISTC, the group that collapsed that year with debts of €871m. The group was started in 2005 by former Anglo executive Tiernan O’Mahony. Dennis O’Brien and Sean Quinn were also shareholders.

Mr McGann became the chairman of the DAA upon its creation in 2004.

Ryanair had called for his resignation this morning.

Sayeth Dick Roche:

A Minister of State has today contended that the Government cannot identify the ten individuals involved in the €451 million transaction to purchase shares in Anglo Irish Bank being unwound by businessman Sean Quinn.

Dick Roche, the Minister for European Affairs, said today that the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan told him that as sole shareholder of the nationalised bank, he has no right to receive information as to identity of the ten individuals.

Mr Roche also rejected allegations that the Government was trying to protect or shield any of the ten.

In a statement responding to weekend media reports that purported to name some of the ten investors, Mr Roche has that Mr Lenihan had confirmed to him that the requirement of confidentiality is laid down in the Central Bank Act 1942.

“It would completely undermine the confidence of customers generally in Anglo Irish Bank if the Minister as shareholder could obtain access to confidential customer information,” said Mr Roche.

The public already know the name of four of the 10. Does Mr Lenihan read the papers? Is Mr Lenihan aware that a close personal friend of his, a close neighbour, and a constituent – Seamus Ross – is one of the 10? I can send him a text if he likes, or maybe an email?

Last night I was trawling newspaper archives for information on the four Anglo names. I have already posted on Seamus Ross and Jerry Conlan. While searching for information on Gerry Gannon I came across this gem from the Sunday Independent from April 2008.

A GROUP of clients of Anglo Irish Banks, including big builders and entrepreneurs, plan to set up a large investment fund to buy shares in the troubled bank.

A meeting took place in a Dublin hotel recently in which it was decided to buy shares worth up to €500m. Gerry Gannon of Gannon Homes and Sean Quinn are thought to have been targeted to join the consortium. Quinn is already a large shareholder.

Sources close to the group suggest that each member will be asked to put in several million euro. When the fund reaches €500m, it will be leveraged up with borrowings to buy further Anglo shares.

Supporters of Anglo are convinced that there are still scores of big investors who will be forced to buy back stock as a result of short selling.

Senator Ross continues:

Some of the consortium are incensed by the recent short selling of Anglo shares by stockbrokers in Dublin and London and are determined to punish the offending brokers.

Last night one member told the Sunday Independent: “We are going to teach the brokers and hedge funds that damaged the bank a salutary lesson. It is our bank, it has an entrepreneurial culture. They will come out of this with their fingers burned.”

Shares in Anglo have tanked in recent weeks, due largely to short selling. They plunged from a 12-month high of €17.53 to below €7 at one point.

The Financial Regulator has launched an investigation into dealings in the stock, especially around the St Patrick’s Day holiday when the shares were assaulted by sellers.

Anglo has bankrolled some of the State’s most successful entrepreneurs, from developer Bernard McNamara to Richard Nesbitt’s Arnotts and Mick Bailey of Bovale.

So Senator Ross knows at least one of the Anglo 10? And he knew about it two months before the operation took place? Would Mr Ross like to tell us more about the details, and the name of the person who spoke to him?

The Property Pin discussed it here at the time.

Update: The plot just got a little thicker. It was pointed out on a forum that Cowen’s infamous private dinner with Anglo Irish executives occurred around the same time. In fact, Cowen met with Anglo executives on Thursday April 24. Ross’s article was published on Sunday April 27.

Was Cowen told anything about this? Were the two meetings in fact the same meeting? Was Cowen made aware of discussions between Anglo investors?

From the article last week reporting the meeting:

But as the Taoiseach came under renewed pressure to name the ‘golden circle’ fresh details emerged of his cosy relationship with the beleaguered bank’s top brass.

Mr Cowen dined privately with Anglo Irish Bank directors at a Dublin hotel just weeks after he had been warned of a dangerous position with the bank’s shares that threatened the entire Irish financial system.

Mr Cowen was Finance Minister at the time and was told only weeks before about problems at the bank with the shareholding of multi-millionaire businessman, Sean Quinn.

He met the Anglo bankers on the night of April 24 last when he was already Taoiseach-in-waiting and when his close friend, Fintan Drury, was a member of Anglo’s board, chairing its risks and compliance committee.

The occasion was not an official public engagement, and no briefing note or formal speech was prepared by officials for the then Finance Minister.

A government spokesman insisted last night: “Private meetings are common between finance ministers and banks across the board.”

Harlequin/Mount Carmel

Jerry Conlan is a Naas-based developer involved with a company formerly known as Harlequin Healthcare. The company owns and runs St Joseph’s private hospital in Sligo. In 2004 the firm competed with another company to build a private hospital in Waterford.

As of June 2006 Mr Conlan was chairman of Harlequin. The company also plans to build a €25m hospital development in Naas. It also owns Aut Evan hospital in Kilkenny.

The Sunday Times reports:

Conlan is the least well-known of the four. He sold 400 acres of land he co-owned in Naas, Co Kildare, known as Millennium Park, for €340m. He used much of the proceeds to found the Mount Carmel Medical Group which owns a maternity hospital in Rathfarnham, south Dublin. Mount Carmel has been appointed by the Health Service Executive to build private hospitals on the grounds of public hospitals as part of the co-location strategy.

In July 2006, Harlequin bought Mount Carmel hospital for a sum believed to be more than €50m. After the purchase Harlequin changed its name to Mount Carmel Medical Group. At the time, it was reported:

“The company yesterday said that it would expand the hospital’s maternity unit and operating theatres. It will also introduce new non-invasive diagnostic techniques for detecting heart disease. A spokesman said yesterday that Harlequin does not intend to use any part of Mount Carmel’s grounds for developments such as residential or commercial building, and would focus its investment on the hospital.”

On December 4, 2008, it was reported that Mount Carmel Medical Group submitted a planning application to Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to redevelop Mount Carmel Hospital. The plans included demolishing the maternity hospital and building a new six-storey one.

Also part of the proposal was the residential development of 40 houses and apartments on the five-acre site at Braemor Park.

Conlan also made his name in the contract catering business in Dublin and has interests in hotels and golf courses. He owns the Central Hotel on Great George’s St.

A Catholic, he is a member of the Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem, dedicated to the defence of the Christian faith. Members are expected to pray daily and to remain faithful to their marriage vows.

Pat Conlan

Jerry’s brother Pat Conlan launched the Amethyst property fund with AIB in September 2007. The fund was to invest €120m in commercial property in Germany. AIB hoped to raise €40m from investors and add €80m in debt. Conlan, an accountant, himself invested €3m.

Liam Lawlor

In 1998 – Seamus Ross told the Mahon Tribunal in 2003 – Liam Lawlor “plagued” him for money. After a day at the races at Fairyhouse, Mr Lawlor asked Mr Ross if had any money. Mr Ross told him he had “a few pounds in the house” and later gave him £5,000 in cash.

Afterwards he said he was angry, and made up his mind to end “this carry-on”. “I was angry with Liam Lawlor,” he said. Shortly after, Mr Lawlor came back again for money but Mr Ross ordered him out of the office. He later felt sorry for him and gave him a discount on a house. Mr Ross told the Mahon Tribunal he sold Mr Lawlor a £100,000 house for £80,000. He also furnished it at a cost of £5,000. Mr Lawlor’s daughter moved into the house.

The next year, Mr Lawlor started legal proceedings against Mr Ross claiming he held a 20% stake of one of Mr Ross’s companies.

Seamus Ross bought the remaining houses and land owned by the Guinness family on the edge of the Phoenix Park in July 2000. He paid £25m for 28 acres. In the late 1990s he was building 700-800 houses a year, including sites in Clonee, Celbridge and Drogheda.

In November 2001, Liam Lawlor TD claimed in a Supreme Court action that he had a 20% stake in the Menolly firm that bought the “Guinness lands” development at Phoenix park. The land had been bought by Seamus Ross through his company Menolly Homes Ltd. Mr Lawlor claimed that before March 1997, he and a Mr Peter Dwyer were developing lands at Phibblestown, Castaheany and Allendale areas of Dublin for residential purposes.

With a view to developing these lands – as well as “the Guinness lands” – it was decided that he and Mr Dwyer would cooperate with Mr Ross and Menolly Properties, he claimed. The TD’s case was that Mr Ross and his companies were developing lands in the area which Mr Ross had bought, and that it was decided to proceed by way of joint venture. Mr Lawlor alleged the shareholding in the corporate body to be formed was 20% to him and 40% each to Mr Ross and Mr Dwyer.

Mr Justice Fennelly dismissed Mr Lawlor’s claim. He said the “fatal flaw” in Mr Lawlor’s claim was clear evidence that an integral part of the March 1997 agreements was the question of how the venture was to be financed. It was left over for discussion at a later date. In those circumstances, the judge found there was no concluded contract and dismissed Mr Lawlor’s appeal.

On October 8, 2003, Seamus Ross told the Mahon Tribunal (PDF (Q137)) that he paid Liam Lawlor TD over £40,000 to get the postal address of a housing estate changed from Clondalkin to Lucan.

Mr Ross estimated the change allegedly arranged by Mr Lawlor was worth £5,000 a house to him, or a total of £2.5m. He said the payments were not political contributions.

Mr Lawlor offered to provide an invoice to Mr Ross, the following day he gave Mr Ross an invoice in the name of Baltic Timber Products for an amount of £20,002.79 (the second tranche). This was done “to make it look official”. Mr Lawlor lodged the money in a London bank account.

Guinness/Farmleigh development

In March 2004, “Dublin’s most prolific builder” according to the Irish Times was given permission to build 85 houses and 190 apartments in a parkland settings across the road from Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park.

In what was described as “a most unusual move”, An Bord Pleanala overruled both Fingal County Council and its own inspector to grant permission for the development.

The previous October, Fingal County Council refused permission for the entire scheme on the grounds that it materially contravened the development plan objective of two units per hectare, a leftover from the last development plan.

After securing the planning permission, Mr Ross and his advisors threw an impromptu party at the K Club to celebrate. The Times reported on March 25, 2004 that the decision to overrule Fingal council planners and an Bord Pleanala’s own inspector had “taken everyone by surprise – except Ross and his advisers, architect Richard Doorly, town planner Shay Fenton, Brendan Byrne of Sherry Fitzgerald.”

It was estimated at the time that after paying €31m for the land in the 2001, he would net €200m from the sale of the homes.

Baldoyle

In June 2004, Menolly Homes paid €95m for a 50% stake in Baldoyle’s racecourse. About 4,000 homes were planned for the site, and an adjoining 100 acre site in Portmarnock. It was to be built on a joint venture basis by Ballymore Properties and Menolly Homes.

The two landbanks had been owned by Sean Mulryan’s Ballymore Properties for about a decade. The landbank straddles the north fringe of lands owned by Gerry Gannon and Shannon Homes, where 7,000 units were planned.

CNG Travel

In June 2004 it was reported that CNG Travel, based in Kenmare, had a loss of €1.23m in 2003. The Menolly group held a 29.9% stake in the company at the time. Seamus Ross’s son, Seamus Jnr, was a director of the company. Dr Michael Smurfit joined the board of CNG several weeks before the company was floated.

In June 2005, the boss of CNG, Finbarr Power, resigned from the company. It had been revealed that Mr Power had already been suspended by the company after he had expressed interest in buying CNG’s leisure business, US firm Places to Stay.

Dunboyne Castle

In August 2006, a proposal by Mr Ross to build a neighbourhood centre at Dunboyne Castle in Co Meath was rejected by An Bord Pleanala. It was looking to build the centre to cater for the eventual 540 units being developed on the grounds of the castle. Menolly also owns the €40m Dunboyne Castle hotel and spa complex.

The group also owns the Dylan Hotel on Upper Baggot Street.

Predictions

In November 2006, at the peak of the property market, Mr Ross was asked what he predicted for 2007:

“A reduction in the number of new units being built. Prices will continue to rise, driven by demand and lack of supply.”

At what stage will higher interest rates affect the market? “I cannot see much effect in the next 12 months. It is an election year, incentives are promised by all the major parties and there is a strong likelihood of changes being made by government to curb the effect of an increase in rates. I recommend that young people take interest-only mortgages to buy their houses and not worry about the principal. Their salaries will increase and dilute the cost of the house over a next of years.”

Can demand for new homes and offices be sustained? “The jobs being created over the last few years by companies like Intel, Wyyat, Pepsi, Google and Sean Quinn Direct will lead to higher demand for new homes and offices. The rise in population and the problems within the planning system affecting supply will also help to sustain the demand.”

What will be the effects of tighter lending by the banks? “It is more responsible lending, making sure people are not exposing themselves to the risk of not being able to pay high mortgages.”

Prediction for 2007? “Fianna Fail returning to government hopefully with the Progressive Democrats. Longford to win the Leinster Championship and Meath to win the All Ireland.”

London

In January 2007, the Menolly Group bought 107 Cheapside from the Carlisle Group for €225m. It also involved the purchase of an adjoining mixed-use building at 2 Honey Lane for €18m. At the time of the purchase the group, Menolly Investments, had assets valued at over €400m, mainly in the UK.

The Anglo connection

Ross began rapidly expanding his business around 1996. In 1997 Menolly took out six mortgages with Anglo Irish Bank. In June 1997, total bank borrowings amounted to £27.9m and stock of £28.7m, more than double the stock figure of previous years.

In 2000 Menolly had a turnover of £66.7m. In 2002 the figure jumped to €157.38m. Pre-tax profits were £6.3m in 2000, and £27.56m in 2002.

Accounts from 2002 show the group having accumulated profits of €53.7m, a year during which the group sold houses and residential property worth €156.8m. The group had loans of €41m in 2002, down from €78m a year earlier. The group’s main bank is Anglo Irish Bank.

The K Club

In 2005 Menolly was building the 83 luxury houses and apartments at the K Club. Residents were promised grandstand views of the Ryder Cup. In September 2006 it was revealed that Menolly had offered 26 members of South Dublin County Council free tickets to the prestigious golf tournament, the Irish branch of Transparency International urged all public representatives not to accept such corporate gifts.

Minister were reminded not to accept corporate invitations to attend the Ryder Cup.

Private wealth

The Irish Times reported in October 2007 that his mode of transport is helicopter and Hawker private jet, which was believed to be undergoing an upgrade to transatlantic capability. Mr Ross’s son took over the running of Menolly. Mr Ross lives at Barberstown House in Clondalkin.

His circle of friends, Jimmy Flynn, John Mahon and Oliver Bardon have been dubbed the “Longford Mafia”.

Big profits have enabled him to indulge in a passion for horses shared by many of his peers. He’s apparently more of an acquirer than a seller of bloodstock, owning horses such as Talking Cents, Pantarez and Ross Moff, while he’s also co-owned a horse with Tom Bailey of Bovale.

His horses and jockeys wear silks in the colours of the home town Father Manning Gaels GAA club in Drumlish.

His political friends include the Lenihan brothers – he can pick up the phone to Brian, his local TD, and Conor – and his political colours are overt.

Ross went to Dublin after serving time as a carpenter, with his friend and fellow north Longfordman, Mick Whelan (of Maple Homes). The two set up Drumlish homes in the 1970s and after a slump, Whelan went to London as a carpenter and by the 1980s, Ross married Whelan’s sister, Moira.

At one point Ross and Whelan set up Sean Dunne in business, in a company called DCD.

According to company filings, Menolly Homes, one of the Menolly companies, has a significant banking relationship with Anglo Irish Bank, which has taken out charges over its properties and book debts. An earlier relationship was formed with Ulster Bank, which has also taken out a charge on Dublin lands owned by the company. Virtually all the recent charges over acreages owned by Menolly have been lodged by either Anglo or Ulster Bank.

Unlimited company

In 2004, Mr Ross converted Menolly into an unlimited company, following the example of Treasury Holdings, Liam Carroll and Castlethorn Construction among others.

The decision meant Menolly Homes’ performance was no longer be open to public scrutiny and that, if the firm goes into liquidation, the directors will have to meet the business debts personally.

The Sunday Times have revealed 4 names they believe are part of the Golden Circle at Anglo Irish:

Four of the 10-strong group of investors assembled by David Drumm, Anglo Irish’s former chief executive, are: Gerry Gannon, Joe O’Reilly, Seamus Ross and Jerry Conlan. Either they or some of their companies now owe several billion to Anglo. All four declined to comment last week.

Those four are named directly with another two appearing to be named indirectly:

Patrick Kearney and John McCabe

The crash just got crashier. From today’s Tribune:

* At a meeting in September Willie McAteer, Anglo finance director, told the head of the Financial Regulator Patrick Neary the bank would be “managing” its balance sheet, to which Neary is recorded as replying, “Fair play to you, Willie.”

* A phone call records officials from Anglo Irish Bank telling staff at the Financial Regulator in October that the bank is “manipulating” its balance sheet. “It is not a real number,” the Anglo staff member is recorded as telling the regulator.

* Anglo auditors Ernst & Young told the bank there was no need to include reference to the transactions in documents sent to shareholders in December, saying only information already in the public domain should be included.

* Anglo assisted Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) coming up to the building society’s half-year ending 30 June by engaging in transactions that reduced IL&P’s reliance on emergency funds from the European Central Bank.

* Anglo has entered into “reciprocal arrangements” to bolster balance sheets with a range of international financial institutions in the past, including Royal Bank of Scotland, AIG and Hypo Real Estate.

* Anglo received requests in the last six months for “balance sheet management” transactions from Lehman Brothers, ABN and
West LB.

* AIB and Bank of Ireland provided Anglo Irish with €6bn of funding on 23 January at the “behest” of the Central Bank

* In September, Anglo was hit by major deposit withdrawals by State Street and AIB Investment Managers.

* At a meeting between officials from IL&P, the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator (FR) in January, Mary O’Dea, consumer director of the FR, “rounded” on IL&P and in an aggressive manner asked, “Why did you do this?” IL&P were concerned about O’Dea’s reaction and raised it at the Department of Finance

Ireland will need an EU bailout by the summer. What strikes me about the Tribune coverage today is that there is so much of it. In other words, it’s a newsdump of stories, all of them as bad as each other. If these stories were dripfed over a week it would have made page one on every single day.

The report is out. Download it here. (Hover, or right click and save as..)

Update: The PwC report was published at 9.20pm. Here it is.

First impressions: It’s 44 pages long. Wasn’t this report over 700 pages? Seems as though they were busy cutting the best bits.

On Page 26 we get this:

The Bank has a number of very large exposures with approximately 15 relationships in excess of €500 million. The size of these exposures increases the risk profile of the Bank. However, the Bank considers that in all cases they are supported by diverse portfolios of assets underpinned by material contractual cashflows and with significant personal/corporate recourse.

The explanation of the lack of pages:

The vast bulk of the PwC Reports was a description of customers’ loan exposures, none of which is included in this Summary Report. The descriptions of customers included a summary of various loans, partnerships, underlying assets, security etc.

Another interesting new bit, I was not aware of:

Banking Book Assets (Available-for-sale financial assets) includes RMBS’s, ABS’s, CDO’s totalling €1.9 billion which are difficult to value and probably illiquid in the current market.

So they have CDO-type assets worth next to nothing?

It seems there was a run on the bank:

As of 27 September 2008, Anglo was forecasting net negative cash of €12.0 billion by 17 October 2008. The principal reason is a €10 billion reduction in corporate and retail deposits consistent with recent deterioration. There has been a €5 billion deterioration in corporate deposits and €440 million deterioration in retail deposits in the last week. The projections assume completion of a securitisation of part of the loan book for €2.2 billion and successful bidding for ECB funds.

This juicy bit:

In our Phase II report we commented that there were large exposures to a number of developers with residential land banks and development sites which are geographically close in South Dublin and Wicklow. Our work on Phase III has highlighted the fact that this concentration of exposure also applies in the next 50 largest land and development loans.

Taking both phases of our work into account there is currently a large over-hang of unsold higher density residential units in these areas accounting for a number of years supply and on top of this there are sites without planning permission in relation to which developers are hoping applications will be processed when local authority infrastructure and planning issues are resolved. Successful disposal of the current and ‘pipeline’ stock will take many years and appear unlikely to occur at current unit price levels. There are likely to be significant losses for individual developers and in turn the Bank as a result.

In other words, all of the money that was spent on buying the land and building the houses is gone, and will never return. The developers will never make a profit on it. The developers involved will be bankrupted by this. Anglo lended recklessly.

Or maybe he does, but has started spinning. His interview on Pat Kenny amounts to an opening salvo in what might be a PR campaign to prepare the ground for the eventual naming of the Anglo 10 (or 20).

There may have been a realisation that the names will have to be released, and now certain persons will be rolled out to try and create some positive sentiment. Unfortunately for Ulick, and the Anglo gamblers, the public are not to be fooled. And judging by the reaction to Ulick, we could be in for a hell of a ride.

As for the views expressed by Ulick about the property market and the golden circle, he is clearly vested in this. His views amount to denial about what exactly the Celtic Tiger was (not what we thought), and therefore his solutions amount to utter nonsense. I really don’t know what planet Ulick is on, but to express to views he has, he either has an agenda, is an idiot, or is insane. Or all three.

So outlandish are his suggestions that they do not merit reaction.

Update: The confirmed so far list is:

Paddy McKillen
Gerry Gannon
Jerry Conlan
Joe O’Reilly
Seamus Ross

If I were inclined to discover who the people behind the €300m loan and investment in Anglo Irish shares were, I would take a close look at the books.

It is highly likely that anyone involved in this tight inner circle were well connected, and would have perhaps been approached by Sean FitzPatrick himself, that is, people he knew or was friends with. The Independent articles from a few weeks ago points to a who’s who of Irish developers, any number of whom could be on the list, emphasis mine:

A cursory examination of the names held in the filing cabinets at Anglo’s headquarters in Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green reads like a who’s who of the heroes of Ireland’s boom years. Many of the individuals with whom Sean FitzPatrick built business and personal relationships will be well known to the Minister for Finance already — and to his predecessor in the office, Taoiseach Brian Cowen, given the close ties between the building industry and Fianna Fail over the years.

Sean Mulryan, Bernard McNamara, Johnny Ronan, Gerry Gannon and Seamus Ross represent just five heavyweight developers — and acknowledged Fianna Fail supporters — on Anglo’s loan books.

Other big names less readily associated with the Governing political party include former Revenue official turned property dealmaker, Derek Quinlan, developer Paddy Kelly, aviation entrepreneur Ulick McEvaddy, and Riverdance creators, John McColgan and Moya Doherty.

Scattered among this streak of Celtic tigers are billions of euro loaned by Anglo Irish Bank over the past decade in a calculated play for lucrative returns.

Indeed, in the case of Sean Mulryan alone, Anglo is understood to have extended loan facilities to the tune of €1bn to finance the Ballymore Properties chief’s ventures in Ireland and in the East End of London.

Bernard McNamara is another major developer with hundreds of millions of euro in borrowings through Anglo on developments both here and in the UK.

Arguably the most high profile of the Clare-born builder’s plans, where Anglo Irish Bank money is involved, is the former Irish Glass Bottles site in Dublin’s Ringsend.

Here, McNamara has a 41 per cent stake in a tri-party consortium along with Derek Quinlan’s Quinlan Private and the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA).

Of course I don’t know if any of these people were involved, but at least some of them would have likely been approached given their relationship with FitzPatrick.

There was more indications today (February 19). The Indo ran with a story about a dinner held in April with Anglo execs, including this nugget:

Mr Cowen was Finance Minister at the time and was told only weeks before about problems at the bank with the shareholding of multi-millionaire businessman, Sean Quinn.

He met the Anglo bankers on the night of April 24 last when he was already Taoiseach-in-waiting and when his close friend, Fintan Drury, was a member of Anglo’s board, chairing its risks and compliance committee.

The plot thickens. The Government is making a massive error by not going public with all the names as soon as possible. From a PR point of view it is almost suicidal. The truth will out eventually, and the way things are being handled it could easily bring down the Government.

Update: The confirmed so far list is:

Paddy McKillen
Gerry Gannon
Jerry Conlan
Joe O’Reilly
Seamus Ross

Prieur du Plessis on Ireland:

I am spending the next few days in Europe on a short business trip. First stop is Dublin where the temperature is icy, the mood is dour, property prices are plunging, the queues for jobless claims are five hours long, the soon-to-be-unemployed are holding protest strikes, and the banks are on the edge of a financial precipice. Yes, it may be a movie with different actors, but the plot is the same as in many other countries.

Lately I feel like we are all on a train, about to hit a brick wall, and we are going in slow motion. The latest stuff on IL&P and Anglo is par for the course, and tip of the iceberg.

Correction: Mistake on name of the poster

Everyone is abuzz and I don’t know why.

Here is the audio.

h/t Maman

The audio of his now infamous Dublin Chamber speech is here.

I meant to upload this yesterday:

Interesting how Lenihan’s own Budget speech also used “Government” so often.

The audio of his now infamous Dublin Chamber speech is here.

Bad Taoiseach or the worst Taoiseach?

Will all the cuts lead to wholescale industrial action?

Can Cowen actually lead the country? Can he hold more than one press conference a year?

My first full day of news and it aint pretty. Near riots in Waterford, Dunne nearing bankuptcy, Quinn saying he lost €1bn in Anglo, and some unbelievable scheme of local authorities to rent empty houses at prices way over the odds.

Eddie Hobbs was also getting berated by some for suggesting that recent graduates should leave the country. I can’t think of many reasons to stay, especially with Lenihan and Cowen fumbling along. Australia and Canada do seem like good options for many, rather than the slow motion train wreck this country is facing.

Back to reality. Ugh. For a while there I wanted to change my citizenship.

I know some readers may have thought I was joking when I said that I thought the IMF would be called in this year. I wasn’t. Ireland is essentially bankrupt. That Cowen is using it as a threat to public service unions is incidental – IMF intervention is a very real possibility.

The lads over on the pin are having a field day with this one. As Blaker says: “If you work on the basis that what politicians actually say in public tends to be quite a bit less dramatic than what is actually happening then I would suggest that we are quite a way towards this actually happening.”

I also like the way politicians talk about public sector pay cuts as if they themselves are not part of the public sector. I also like how RTE report on public sector cuts as if they themselves are not publicly funded.

Cowen should be more careful though. When news of the comments came out, the CDS on Ireland rose by 5 basis points. That’s effectively the cost to insure Irish debt. The euro also fell against the dollar on his comments. Indeed, next time Ireland goes looking to borrow money, it may be more expensive to borrow thanks to Cowen’s comment this morning.

More broadly, the euro is looking increasingly vulnerable. Spain, Italy and Greece are all facing serious problems with debt and debt ratings.

And by standards set by our former esteemed leader, Bertie Ahern, Cowen is talking down the economy. We all know what Ahern thinks of those people.

Bloomberg
FT
Irish Times
RTE

Update: Cowen denies it. Not surprising.

He made some awfully stupid comments on Vincent Browne tonight. Will post a video once it’s up. What a dumbass.

Finally. The head of the Financial Regulator will “retire” from January 31, 2009.

He should have fallen on his sword a long time ago.

Here is in a bizarre interview in October:

There is something odd about all of this though. Back in December, the Financial Regulator issued a statement:

The Financial Regulator became aware, following an inspection earlier this year, of matters surrounding loans from Anglo Irish Bank to Sean Fitzpatrick. While it does not appear that anything illegal took place in relation to these loans, the Financial Regulator was of the view that the practices surrounding these loans were not appropriate. As a result we continued to monitor and investigate this and as part of this process we advised Anglo Irish Bank to ensure that these loans are reported in the annual accounts for 2008.

While these matters remain under investigation, the Financial Regulator was informed today by the Board of Anglo Irish of the resignation of Sean Fitzpatrick as chairman and Mr Lar Bradshaw as director. It has welcomed the appointment of Mr Donal O’Connor as the new chairman. As these matters remain under investigation, it is not possible to comment further at this time.

But hang on a minute. Neary now says this:

I had deferred a decision about my retirement until the Report of the Committee of the Authority examining the internal communication of matters relating to loans to Directors of Anglo Irish Bank Corporation plc was concluded. So far as I am concerned, I was not advised of any such matters in early 2008 and there has been no oral, written or email escalation of these issues to me or to the Authority over the period until the matter was raised with me by the Minister on 10 December 2008.

Eh? Neary is saying he was not advised of any “such matters” until December 10. So did the Regulator know about the loans in early 2008, or did they not?

The conclusion of the report is up here

· while concerns persisted in BSD the matter was not pursued partly because a letter from Anglo went missing and partly because of the pressure on officials from the unfolding of liquidity problems in financial markets and in individual institutions;

· the Committee noted that while the pressures referred to above did not explain what occurred they are an essential part of the background;

· the issue did not surface again internally, even in Autumn 2008, when major stability and strategic issues were being addressed by the authorities including the Government;

· in relation to the particular issue of whether this matter had been mentioned to the Prudential Director and Chief Executive after a wider meeting had concluded in January 2008, the Committee was impressed with the coherence, clarity and belief in their stated recollections of the people concerned and their integrity. Nevertheless, the evidence presented to the Committee on this issue could not be reconciled by the Committee. There is no suggestion from any party that any communication – verbal or written – on this issue was made to either the Prudential Director or Chief Executive in the period (subsequent to January) to December 2008..

So the “Regulator” (as a body) knew about it. A letter went missing. People in the office of the regulator never told the chief executive about the loans…? What?

The redesigned FP site is really very good. And their recently hired bloggers have been creating a stir. But what is this from Stephen Walt?

The UK has produced any number of world-class rock bands and artists: the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Who, U-2, Sex Pistols, Van Morrison, Cream, Elvis Costello, Eurythmics, David Bowie, etc., so my generalization obviously doesn’t apply there.

I’m not sure Irish readers would be entirely happy with that. In fact many would be livid. Van the Man and Bono would not be happy.

Update: Josh Keating also spots it.

Anthony has a mega-post detailing what he calls the denial pervasive in Ireland with regard to the dysfunctional nature of our so-called democracy. For sheer quotes alone it is worth a read.

The Financial Times is correct, Ireland is a banana republic. It is a corrupt state not just because of the extent of corruption throughout every level of society but more critically because of the complete failure of state agencies, including the body politic, to take effective measures to root out the disease.

For some reason or another my blog is reasonably highly ranked for the above mentioned former hack. There has been a distinct spike in traffic thanks no doubt to the New York Times article about her husband Sean Dunne.

It’s an interesting piece. I particularly liked this passage from the ESRI:

“We have repeatedly warned that the government’s housing policy was extremely dangerous,” said John Fitz Gerald, an economist at the Economic and Social Research Institute, a leading policy center in Dublin, who has long urged that the government stanch housing demand by raising taxes. “You will now see unemployment going to 10 percent and we will experience a sharp drop in output.”

He shakes his head and sighs: “This was predictable, but the government just did not deal with it.”

Ya wha? The ESRI were cheerleading right up to the very end. The ESRI failed to predict anything. Indeed only six months ago they were predicting unemployment far lower than 10%.

There is also this:

But he says the [Ballsbridge] project will be completed, assuming that it wins approval of the planning board. “If anyone wants to bet I can’t do this, I will take that bet,” he says, citing, without specifics, talks with Asian banks and a sovereign wealth fund. “You have to have steel in a certain part of your body to do this job, and as one of my bankers recently said to me, ‘Sean, the only thing that will take you out is a stray bullet.’ ”

…

“This is the way God made me, with heavy shoulders and an ability to carry a great load,” he says, forcefully rejecting the rumors of his financial demise buzzing around Dublin. (One of the more fantastic claims was that his financial troubles had forced him to take a month’s recuperation in a mental institution.)

“Failure is not an option for me,” he says. But others aren’t so sure.

Nope. I would argue that he will never make money on the project. And that’s not begrudgery, that’s reality. He paid hyper-inflated prices for the land. Even if he does build, he is highly unlikely to get sale prices on the apartments that he expected when buying the land in the first place. And that’s if they even sell.

Sean Dunne perhaps typifies the connection between politics and developers in Ireland. A friend of our former esteemed leader, and a regular at the Galway Tent, one wonders what conversations went on over the years between FF and developers like Dunne.

We shall see if he survives the turmoil of 2009, I guess.

“The Irish banks are so well capitalised compared to any banks anywhere across Europe that I am confident they can absorb any loans or any impairments that emerge in the ordinary course of business.”

Sigh. This is what Neary had to say on October 2, 2008. Just a few short weeks later and the Government was injecting billions into the banks.

Neary has spent his entire adult life, since he was 19, working at the Central Bank, and then at IFSRA. He clearly has no idea what the hell he is doing, and is so close to the establishment that he has no idea what regulation actually means. Oh and then there’s all that business about what he did or didn’t know about Fitzpatrick’s loans of €87m from Anglo, and why he apparently didn’t bother telling anyone.

I see new Anglo Irish chairman Donal O’Connor has seen fit to resign from his position at the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. John Gormley accepted his resignation today. Mr O’Connor served as Chairman of the DDDA since the middle of 2007. In a statement the DDDA said:

He has made this decision in light of his very significant commitment to his role in Anglo Irish Bank. His resignation also ensures that there can be no suggestion of a potential for conflict of interest, either perceived or real, with his new role as Chairman of the Bank.

Mr O’Connor himself said:

“As the new Chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, I am very conscious of the level of commitment required of me and, in addition, and I wish to ensure that there can be no suggestion of conflict of interest in the various roles I have. Accordingly, I have advised the relevant Ministers and the Chief Executive of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority of my intention to step down as Chairman of the Executive Board of the Authority.”

Hmm. No perceived conflict of interest? How did Mr O’Connor feel about Messrs Fitzpatrick and Bradshaw being on the board of the DDDA while at the same time being on the board of Anglo Irish? Of course the much vaunted SIPO commission looked into that whole relationship and found nothing untoward, prompted by a complaint from Michael Smith.

Furthermore, what is Mr O’Connor’s relationship with those two individuals? How did Mr O’Connor do while he headed the DDDA? Well, while he was chairman, he entered into a secret deal with Liam Carroll, which led to legal action. The secret deal could cost taxpayers millions. And who does Mr Lenihan choose to head Anglo? Mr O’Connor. In October, the Phoenix was on the story:

Having last year entered into a secret arrangement with developer Liam Carroll – which was challenged by Seán Dunne – the DDDA has now been exposed in the High Court to huge compensation claims. The Seán Dunne/Liam Carroll debacle looks set to cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions. As Carroll’s €200m north quay scheme has been rendered null and void and could be pulled down, the developer is bound to look to the DDDA, which greenlighted the project, to bail him out. To date, approximately €83m has been spent on the development. Seán Dunne, too, will be looking for massive compensation.

Then there’s the litigation from Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett at Treasury Holdings, whose Spencer Dock Development Company also challenged the Authority’s links with Carroll described as “a direct relationship” by Justice Geoghegan – claiming that there was a covert contract between the DDDA and Carroll’s company relating to the development of the north quays, where the Spencer Dock company controls 29 acres. Ronan and Barrett have claimed that the DDDA “seriously compromised itself” with its commitments to Carroll and, given the High Court finding that the agreement gave rise to “a reasonable apprehension of bias”, the case already looks like game, set and match. Again, the claims for compensation here will run into millions.

However, the cock-ups with Seán Dunne and Treasury Holdings are only the tip of the iceberg in the docklands, where controversy is the order of the day. For example, it is far from clear what has been going on in relation to the building of the proposed iconic ‘U2 Tower’ but, given that the original architectural competition stretches back to 2003, it is obvious that something has gone badly wrong. That original competition was marked by controversy when the winning scheme could not be identified as relevant details had been lost and, as a result, the runner-up – Burdon Craig Dunne Henry architects, a firm associated with U2 manager Paul McGuinness’s brother-in-law, Felim Dunne – was deemed to be the winning
designers.

Of more concern to the taxpayer, however, must be the DDDA’s involvement in the Irish Glass Bottle site consortium. At the very top of the property market, this land in Ringsend was sold off by Paul Coulson and Dublin Port for a whopping €424m. What makes this deal so worrying is the huge level of debt inside the winning Becbay consortium. For example, Bernard McNamara put in €57.5m for a 41% stake but only €5m in cash. The balance came from Davy clients who subscribed for loan stock. In return they are to get a hefty 17% per annum return – which reflects the perceived level of risk in the project. This is not surprising given that the original purchase was backed by a €288m loan from Anglo Irish Bank, which also promised to provide a further €900m in development finance.

The DDDA itself has put up over €32m cash – presumably borrowed – while the latest annual report for the Authority also reveals loans to joint venture undertakings of €37.6m, €32.8m of which is accounted for by “unsecured interest-free” loans to Becbay. The notes to the accounts state “the executive board is satisfied that Becbay Ltd will not be required to repay this debt in the short-term and therefore these loans have been classified as financial assets”.

It is not only the involvement here of the DDA in such a highly-leveraged, costly project undertaken at the top of the market that is of concern. There are also questions about possible conflict of interest given the presence on the board of two Anglo Irish Bank directors, Lar Bradshaw (then DDDA chairman) and Seán Fitzpatrick.

Indeed, a complaint from Michael Smith even led to an embarrassing investigation by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO).

Since then, both Bradshaw and Fitzpatrick have left the board (voluntarily) but, as Goldhawk revealed (see The Phoenix, 27/6/08) the current DDDA board is still closely linked to the bank.

For example, one of the new directors is Catherine Mullarkey, an ex-Anglo Irish executive. Moreover, accountant Donal O’Connor – who replaced Bradshaw as chairman – was subsequently slipped onto the board of, wait for it, Anglo Irish Bank. O’Connor is a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers, which, the DDDA accounts reveal, earned €150,000 last year for internal audit and consultancy services to the DDDA.

The other members of the board are Niall Coveney, Dónall Curtin, Niamh O’Sullivan, Brendan Malone and Sheila O’Donnell. It is far from clear why this board has allowed the DDA drift into such controversial and potentially costly situations but Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, can hardly sit by and watch the taxpayer stuffed for millions of euro without those responsible being held to
account.

How much further should we dig? How about Treasury Holdings, poster boy of the great and the good of Irish entrepreneurial spirit. As Town Planner noted in May [via the Phoenix]:

IN THE league of politicians renowned for palling around with property bigwigs, Cork SouthWest Blueshirt Jim O’Keeffe is hardly amongst the title contenders. So Goldhawk was intrigued to see him give two-fingers to the ethics legislation recently by receiving €7,500 from Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett. Jimbo received these donations in three installments, through three Ronan/Barrett companies.
Those pesky ethics laws state that no TD can receive more than €2,539 from one individual or organisation as Jimbo is well aware, considering he was Fine Gael’s justice spokesperson until late last year.

If a TD is unlucky enough to receive more than this from an admirer, he or she must not only swiftly return the dosh to the donor but also report the donation to the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO). Moreover, company subsidiaries are also covered in the legislation and are considered one and the same as the parent company.

So, when Treasury Holdings gave O’Keeffe €2,500 last year, he must have presumed that that would be the last he’d be hearing from the moneybags developers. O’Keeffe received another €2,500 from Spencer Dock Development Company Ltd (SDD), the company behind Treasury’s mammoth development in the Dublin Docklands. While Harry ‘Point Depot’ Crosbie is involved here, Treasury Holdings is the principal shareholder and, indeed, SDD’s accounts – which are signed off by Ronan and Barrett – state that “the company is a subsidiary undertaking of Treasury Holdings…”

Jimbo received a third cheque for €2,500 from Treasury’s Burlington Road HQ but in the name of Havenview Investments Ltd. The main shareholder here is Real Estate Opportunities Ltd (REO), the booming property venture run by Ronan and Barrett and controlled by Treasury Holdings. The other shareholders are Brossbar – a whollyowned Treasury subsidiary – and Jermyn Investment Properties Ltd, a UK company also associated with Treasury Holdings. To simplify matters, Havenview’s accounts – also signed off by Ronan and Barrett – list the “ultimate holding companies” as Treasury Holdings and REO.

None of which says much for Jimbo’s statement to Goldhawk that his three donors are completely separate legal entities, something which he says he checked with Treasury Holdings. Happily, O’Keeffe said he contacted SIPO when he received the “entirely unsolicited” donations and he was assured that he was completely in accordance with the rules. This is not strictly true, however, considering SIPO has no role in establishing whether or not a politician’s disclosures are genuine – it merely advises politicians on the guidelines. O’Keeffe would not comment on whether or not he believed the dosh to be ultimately coming from the same source anyway, ie Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett. His Blueshirt colleague, Leo Varadkar, recently denounced Beverly Flynn, for “breaking the spirit” of the legislation by pulling a similar stunt.

Interestingly, O’Keeffe received a fourth cheque for €2,500 from Ronan and Barrett through Castle Market Holdings Ltd but returned it when the pair told him that this company was a Treasury subsidiary.

Ah yes. Who is on the Public Accounts Committee? Interesting.

Watching these three fumble around brought to mind a certain image. They remind of three drunken louts, staggering their way through Templebar, bumping into each other, into walls, into rubbish bins, and the further they walk the more likely it is that all three will, at varying times, collapse face first in a pool of stale Guinness, followed by their own vomit. At which point Ireland will be calling in the International Monetary Fund to bail us out.

While some may consider my views anti-FF, they are not. I don’t see much promise from the FG or Labour, besides perhaps Richard Bruton, and even Eamon Gilmore (his deadbeat speech was rather good). But these are only individuals, not their entire parties.

From where will the vision come? To say I am pessimistic about the future of this country would be an understatement. 2009 will be armageddon.

Back in October, someone calling themselves Deepthroat posted on the property forum thepropertypin.com. Some called him (or her) a crank, but others had their curiosity piqued. I for one welcome our own deepthroat, but wonder if the language could be a little more transparent. The earlier posts in October seem to indicate the Fitzpatrick debacle last week. I wonder what 2009 will bring. Many of these posts have since been deleted, but are available via the Google cache.

On October 16, Deepthroat said the following:

I am sick to the pit of my stomach to see what has played out in the media and I cannot bear it any more. The Irish public deserves better and needs to know the whole truth.

I have access to several people in the dail and these are the rumours that are cirulating in the small tight circle of powerful people who really know what has been happening the last few weeks:

- The events of the last few weeks are nothing compared to what has gone behind closed doors and is only known to the few people that attended top level meetings when the Irish banking system nearly hit the wall a few weeks ago. A financial scandal involving several household names was barely kept away from the public as a result of the panic in the stock market and has since been swept under the carpet. There are many individuals who would end up destroyed if the real story ever gets told. Unfortunately for them, the measures introduced did not stop the shitstorm that is coming. Thie truth can only be contained for a short while, even as I write a desparate cover up is under way to limit the damage that will be done to the Irish establishment once the journos get their heads around the truth ( as one individual almost has). Timeline: 3-6 months.

- Mary Harney and the Green Party are now being repositioned by spin doctors as the fall guys for some of the crap that is coming. Expect Harney to resign and the government to collapse as FF blames everybody but themselves. Timeline: 6 months – 1 year.

- A new government will be formed with FG/Labour and SF. A significant proportion of people in the highest ranks of Irish society will have their careers ended.

The truth is out there.

And

Think of what I am referring to as property Ansbacher, but with land-banks owned by shell companies. The collapse of the Irish banking system made a few individuals very scared, and scared people loosen their tongues. Our so-called political class is up to their armpits in this crap. This stuff has risen to the surface only accidentally in the last few years (for instance, CAB has been chasing corporate phantoms owned by other corporate phantoms).

As for FG and SF not getting into bed together, I have it on good authority that neither would like to face the electorate and will swallow hard and get on with the business of government.

Times have changed out there. Expect surprises.

Interesting stuff. Later on he replied:

The world has changed. FF are not the only party with their fingers in the sweety jar. This cuts right across all political divides. Six months ago, nobody would have predicted what has happened to the Irish economy. Perhaps in about six months from now, the unthinkable will happen.

Ask yourself these questions -

- Why have the Irish banks been bailed out and yet no senior banking figures been axed, unlike nearly every other country in Europe in similar circumstances?
- Why did the Financial Regulator not clamp down on irresponsible bank lending to developers?
- Why are the full banking liabilities kept secret?
- Why were Section 23 tax breaks continued even when those in the ‘know’ saw that the bubble was bursting?

Look to Mr.Juan Antonio Roca of Marbella, as an example.

Look to Argentina. Where is our Elisa Carrió?

There is an elephant is the living room.

Watch this space. Carefully.

And:

Clues. I cannot name names, even hint at names (sorry E).
But I will tell you how it works. Spin doctors are cynical depraved individuals and will use anything to create and manipulate the public sentiment. Just like a stage magician will be flourishing his hand with a handkerchief, while the other hand is actually up to something devious while you are not watching.

Always watch the hand they do not want you to look at.

For instance. It seems politically strange and naive to attack pensioners and remove their medical cards, when all you are saving is €100 million. There are easier ways to save this money without arousing such hostility.

However, this does two things. It will fill the airwaves with shouting and complaining (possibly justified) about ‘the poor old people’ for weeks and diverts attention away from ‘the other hand’, the one they do not want you to see. Another prediction – the pensioners will get to keep their medical cards (mostly) whilst at the same time isolating Mary Harney for a future fall when it is politically expedient. While the media obsesses about medical cards, the banking scheme was released, the terrible truth covered up for another little while and the FF head honchos disappear conveniently off the Irish stage to Brussels.

The plan all along was to arouse public hostility as a smoke screen. The medical card fiasco is a huge red herring.

In the coming weeks and months, keep watching the hand the magician does not want you to notice. To quote someone we know, it is all ’smokes and daggers’.

And the next day:

Things have changed fast since I last posted.

It seems that those with something to lose are getting nervous. The announcement that the financial regulator will be examining the banks debts has meant that time is even more limited than I speculated earlier for the massive cover up at the center of the Celtic Tiger to be exposed. The book keepers in the UK and elsewhere are planning to pull the plug if this is not contained. This means using the nuclear option. In the next few weeks an Irish bank will be allowed to fail and a major public figure will be the scape goat. The banks liabilities will be conveniently absorbed by the government without having to disclose who owed what. This seems to be Plan A.

But, just in case, Harney, the Greens and even FF are now exposed to the wrath of the Irish public, the smoke screen of the medical cards was nearly too successful. A useful sideshow. But it has caused deep instability within the government (as it was intended to do) because those behind the scenes with everything to lose are considering relinquishing power in order to save their own skins from the storm that is coming. This seems to be Plan B.

In 2002 and 2005 this scandal was contained, in different and vicious ways. It may not be so easy to cover it up now. The government may fall on its own sword to save the people with real power.

Look for the patterns in the Capital Expenditure Program. Expect Chinese money to be used creatively. There may also be an announcement from the EU on something unexpected. Sir Alan Walters may have been right and if so, this cover up will lead us into Argentinian territory. This may be the unintended Plan C, accompanied by a new Flight of the Earls, except this time the Earls are more crooks than nobles.

The game is nearly up.

And this week:

I was here before, but I got into Deep Trouble. A certain party got wind of my posts and I had to remove myself.
The empire has now crumbled however and the party involved has worse problems to worry about than me. By the use of certain keywords in this message, senior boards members can vouch for who am I.

It has not come to pass exactly as I predicted, but there was an attempt to destroy a foolish third party in attempt to add credibility to certain public institutions and remove the limelight from where it had become uncomfortable. Plan B has now been rolled out and in an effort to ‘protect’ the banking systems, an attempt is being made to hide the truth. What has come out is only the tip of the iceberg. An entire generation of Irish people has had their futures written off by the greed and stupidity of a small clique of politicians, business people, bankers and public servants.

The manipulation is somewhat breathtaking. At my level, it is easy to think it is about keeping control – but see how the pork ‘crisis’ was delayed until the European Authorities could step in and save the poor farmers? All in the same week that the new Lisbon referendum was announced. Result – large possible ‘No’ vote taken out by fear. Fantastic. But wrong.

But even so, this earthquake that is now rumbling it’s way through the Irish political class – this is bigger and will be harder to control. Not since 2004 have so many ‘respectable’ people woken up to find the disgusting truth about their wealth almost front page news. To the two journalists who contacted me through PM – keep digging! There is gold down there. Lots of it.

My final riddle – who guards the guardians? Even dogs without teeth have an owner.

I am old and cynical now. You may see me on TV in the background somewhere as this thing unwides. I will try to smile.

It’s time to regulate.

The resignations at Anglo Irish Bank continue, as chief executive David Drumm resigns.

The bank may need recapitalisation or nationalisation before next Monday.

O’Brien was born on November 3, 1917 and died today, December 18, 2008. When I first started reading the Sindo I always found him engaging but never really agreed with him.

I could never understand how he moved so easily from one end of the political spectrum to the other. Of course I know him best for coining the phrase Grotesque, Unbelievable, Bizarre and Unprecedented, or GUBU, in reference to Charlie Haughey and the discovery of a murder suspect in the apartment of the Fianna Fáil Attorney General Patrick Connolly.

This post by Steve reminds me of the recent debacle here in Ireland. For those who were unaware, the chief of the Irish State employment agency FAS, Rody Molloy, resigned after it emerged he had been on very expensive junkets courtesy of the Irish taxpayer.

When he came on radio to defend his extravagance, he said he was “entitled” to fly first class. €643,000 was spent on these trips to the US over four years. Many civil servants, including Molloy, brought their spouses along at taxpayers’ expense.

Contrast that with US Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tevi Troy, working away in one of the worst (albeit cheapest) seats on the plane. I would argue that such a high ranking official should get business class at least, especially if they are working in-flight, but the message is the right one – thrift.

RTE reports that RTE is to be sued by Declan Ganley, over last week’s awful PrimeTime investigates.

The head of Libertas said the programme “was actionable”. Was it a slanderous programme? I guess a court will decide, unless RTE settles out of court first.

Will Molloy turn up?

Witnesses for Meeting of 4 December

Committee Room 1 Leinster House 10.00 a.m.

FÁS
Mr. Peter McLoone, Chairman of the Board
Mr Christy Cooney – Assistant Director General, Human Resources/Organisation Development/Public Affairs
Mr Donal Sands – Assistant Director General, Finance & Information Technology
Mr Patrick Kivlehan- Director -Internal Audit
Mr. Niall Saul, Board Member, Chairman of the Board Audit Sub-Committee
Mr. Jim Coughlan, Director South East Regions
Mr Denis Rowan, ADG Employment Services
Mr Rody Molloy

Department of the Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Mr. Dermot Mulligan, Assistant Secretary, Labour Force Development

Department of Finance
Ms. Gráinne McGuckin, Principal Officer

Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Mr. John Buckley, Comptroller and Auditor General

Am I the only person in Ireland who doesn’t think Declan Ganley is the devil incarnate? I am perplexed by the recent Aine Lawlor interview and the Primetime hit job on him tonight. And I use the phrase hit job because that’s all it seemed to be. It looked like something Fox News would be proud of.

I have no particular love or hate for Libertas, or for Ganley himself. I’m actually pretty neutral on the whole thing. Yes he campaigned in favour of a No vote at Lisbon, a position with which I agreed. But that’s sort of besides the point.

The question that RTE seem to be posing is that Ganley is somehow a different political animal than what we’re used to. That his funding is somehow mysterious. That he has connections – horror of horrors – to making money from the US military industrial complex.

Maybe I’m the only one. But I don’t see the big deal about this. Maybe someone can enlighten me as to why Ganley’s finances should be put under the spotlight, and not those of Fianna Fail, the party that has been in power for the last 11 years and has presided over a cataclysmic property bubble? Or that we have no idea from where Fianna Fail, or Fine Gael for that matter, got most of their funding?

Rumours abound. Serious stuff.

I heard one over the summer about FÁS. It was around the time that Enda Kenny told the Dail that gardaí were investigating the alleged misappropriate use of funds by a senior executive within FÁS.

The rumour was unverified obviously, so it is was basically gossip – and therefore has all of the qualifications that should be attached to any gossip.

The scenario laid out to me was that certain Sunday newspapers were involved in accepting advertising from FÁS. So what you might say. I was told that staff within those newspapers would agree a price with an individual, or individuals, within FÁS. The price might only be known to a small group of people and, critically, the price would be inflated.

A percentage of this overall advertising spend would then be shared, personally, between respective staff in certain Sunday newspapers and staff in FÁS. I guess it would be called kickbacks. Or fraud. That is certain parties within FAS may have been engaged in fraud.

We have already heard of certain allegations around advertising spending – even that an advertising company was set up by staff in FÁS.

Another rumour I heard, widely circulated, was that Mary Hanafin went on trips to Florida.

Senator Shane Ross will have further revelations for us on Sunday, no doubt.

Maman points out a curiosity about Brian Cowen’s relationship to Rody Molloy. It could be true. Cowen is married to Mary Molloy.

In June, Cowen had this to say about Mr Molloy:

“the chief executive of that organisation is a person whom I personally hold in the highest regard, and whose integrity I would defend at all times, Mr Rody Molloy.” IT June 26, 2008.

Pretty straightforward. Mr Molloy was appointed director general by Mary Harney, then Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, to the position in October 2000. He is married to Noreen. He has been a civil servant since the days of Jack Lynch. He is from Crinkill, Co Offaly. He replaced Dr John Lynch, who went to CIE.

At the same time as Molloy’s appointment, Mary Harney appointed future husband Brian Geoghagen to be chairman of FAS.

(An aside: In October 1994, Brian Cowen was forced to sell shares in Arcon Resources, after it emerged they were seeking a mining licence while he was minister with responsibility in that area. Reynolds did not seek his resignation. In April 1996, in the first publication of politicians’ interests he said he held no shares, land, property, travel, renumeration or contracts.)

Curiously, Mary Molloy is herself related to the mother of Minister for Integration Conor Lenihan, Ann Lenihan (wife of the late Brian Lenihan).

Given the nature of these things in Irish politics, I can’t begin to imagine how deep the rabbit hole goes on this one. With the sums of money involved, this is probably the tip of the iceberg.

Update: Mr Molloy has resigned in disgrace. I can confirm Mary Molloy is not related to Rody.

The Facebook group was mentioned on TV3 news last night, and in the Irish Times yesterday. We passed 3,000 members a couple of hours ago.

Michael Healy-Rae is the Sarah Palin of Irish politics.

I am still amazed. We can no longer keep count of invites to the Cervical Cancer Vaccine Facebook group. When it went beyond 6,000 invites, Facebook simply stopped showing how many are now invited.

So the revised figures, just 60 hours into the campaign:

1,781 members
6,000+ invited (could be way higher)
61 wall posts

The growth figures in three days (and so far today)

November 12: 255 members, 1,760 invited
November 13: 1,012 members, 5,534 invited
November 14: 1,781 members, 6,000+ invited

If current levels of uptake continue, the group will reach 10,000 members by the end of next week.

Red Mum will be at the Spire in Dublin at 2pm tomorrow, to protest Harney’s decision.

I sympathise with their plight.

But by the same token I have to ask myself three questions, based in part on instinct and in part on statistical probability.

1. How many of the old people protesting voted Fianna Fail?

2. How many of the old people protesting have always voted Fianna Fail?

3. How many of the old people protesting will vote Fianna Fail in the next election?

Crazily, I suspect most of them.

By the way my favourite protester sign read:

No country for old men, or women.

Ah more memories…Batt O’Keeffe defends the indefensible. March 30, 2004.

I dug it out from the RTE archives. Remember this? €170m wasted.

I can’t help but think it would have been more effective to resign as a TD, not just from FF.

Update: I’ve just heard a rumour that Noel O’Flynn has also resigned from FF. Will try and find out if it’s true. Hmm nothing confirmed yet, but at the very least he will not vote in support of the legislation. Nah, he hasn’t resigned. Gutless wonder.

This really makes for disturbing reading:

A CHURCH that had been ‘saved’ from demolition was knocked down anyway early this morning.

At 6am, residents near Croke Park woke to the sound of a bulldozer-type piece of machinery being driven into the front of the church.

The destruction on the quiet Jones’ Road, beside the GAA stadium, comes only a day after workers at the church site were served with notification from the council to stop work.

Residents had reported work at the site to Dublin City Council and gardai over the last two days, but this morning at 6am a machine was driven into the front of the building.

Not alone that:

Residents called gardai on hearing the commotion and when they arrived the person who was operating the bulldozer ran away.

The Ireland match against Cyprus will be held at Croke Park this evening and this partial demolition of the church is located at the railway bridge very close to the stadium.

The builder in question should be shot jailed in my opinion. Then fined. And then forced to rebuild the church as it was. I’m surprised at Bertie Ahern’s silence, it’s his constituency.

It will also feature in tomorrow’s Irish Examiner. I took out the sub-heads from the text – words that Lenihan didn’t actually utter.

He obviously says “Government” a lot, but I think it serves as a good anchor to the rest of the words.

October 2005:

When you are talking in terms of massive and unprecedented growth, created by this Government, in a €41 billion budget, the level of expenditure of misspent money is relatively very, very small.

Then Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey, speaking about the HSE’s controversial €150 million PPARS computer system.

I bet they are wishing they had that “very, very small” €150m handy now.

Update: The audio is here.

As P O’Neill points out, Dell are in the process of making a decision on their operations here.

It seems clear now that Dell will pull out of Limerick altogether. They might also pull of Ireland entirely. That’s an instant 10,000 redundancies – more people on the dole. Related industries will also be affected, which could lead to yet more redundancies. 20,000 perhaps? As I said before, unemployment could hit 10% by next year, and then we are really up the creak.

The bad thing is, I can’t think of one reason why Dell would want to stay here.

But perhaps the effect on the economy will be more psychological than practical. Dell shipping out will mark a shift in the model Ireland has successfully used for 30 years. It simply won’t work the same way anymore. Recent IDA projects like The Irish Mind will only go so far. What is needed is an investment not just in physical (especially broadband) infrastructure, but intellectual.

A massive school building programme; IT and broadband that is top of the range; teachers who can teach IT in all forms – not as a subject but as a tool for learning in all subjects. A wholescale change in the way we approach the idea of a knowledge economy. The Government have thus far paid lip service to the idea, either they act now, or you have to ask… what does Ireland have to offer?

The Irish Examiner is running a series at the moment of putting questions to various Government ministers. The minister facing questions for the next edition is Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin.

Do you have a question you would like to put to Minister Hanafin? Send me an email or leave a comment. A name with a town/county would be cool too.

Your question may be put to the minister and published…. :-)

When the government said recently that Health and Education would be saved from any cutbacks, guess what?

They lied.

Colm Rapple:

Third level education grant levels have been frozen until the end of the year. Qualifying means-test levels have also been raised. In addition, decisions on grant levels will be made in the context of the annual budget and any changes will apply from January 1 rather than from the beginning of the academic year. Students opting for third level this autumn won’t know until Budget Day how much their grant will be worth for the 2009 portion of their academic year.

And that’s just one example.

Myself and Anthony have it from a very reliable source that the person at the centre of the Bord na gCon report is a Mr Dan Lannon. We have no further details, except to say that the report states Mr Lannon has “extensive experience” in the building industry.

Even more strangely, when Anthony contacted the C&AG’s office, he asked for the man’s name. On the phone they replied:

“No, we went and enquired and, we know who he is, just can’t contact him.”

So they wrote a report without contacting the central figure in the scandal.

Nowhere during the campaign from either the Yes or No side have I heard mention of army conscription. And I watched most TV debates and listened to most radio debates.

Yet today I’ve heard the word used multiple times by Government ministers. Why? Are they preparing the ground for a Nice 2 style second referendum, whereby the chief concern was believed to be neutrality?

Watch how government ministers speak very closely over the coming days.

In May 1996, when An Bord Pleanala gave the go-ahead to the Sonas Consortium building a casino in the Phoenix park, Taoiseach Brian Cowen, then a back bench TD from Offaly, attended a celebration party at the Conrad Hotel hosted by Robert White – the close associate of Bertie Ahern.

White was a director of Sonas. PJ Mara as a public relations consultant for the project. Norman Turner was chief executive.

And don’t forget. The plan was shot down on June 18, 1996, because the Rainbow Coalition shot it down. They wouldn’t bring in the gambling legislation and after a Task Force report, the Cabinet decided against the project.

Harry Shiels, chairman of the West Dublin Action Group opposing the plan said they were pleased with the outcome. “We met John Bruton, Proinsias De Rossa, Ruairi Quinn, Hugh Coveney and other senior politicans,” he said. “We also met Mary Harney and Bertie Ahern. But we got no support from Mr Ahern on the issue, and I would be worried that, if Fianna Fail were in power, it many have been a different story.”

Ahern has always said he never backed the project. How odd.

It’s a shame it never went ahead, Ahern would have got his dream of a 63,000 seater stadium, the one thing he said he regretted not doing on his resignation.

Miriam Ahern (nee Kelly), former wife of Bertie Ahern, was a bank clerk when they met in the 1960s. They married on Ahern’s 24th birthday in 1975. She comes from a family of 13 in Dublin Central, and all are fervent FF supporters and campaigned on his behalf.

(Irish Times, July 12, 1984)

Because, Mr. O’Neill, just to be very straight about it. Reading something on the 8th, I having to deal with in the one week the cabinet meeting, deal with the Dail, the questions and answers in the Dail, deal with a full week in the Dail. Then deal with a European Council where you get monstrous briefs over the weekend and then go to America where I went to Stanford and made a major speech to 2,500 people and then do my usual. I just did not have time. And before I got back you, with your usual efficiency and with your large amount of staff and your huge legal team had Grainne Carruth in here trying to hang her. So that’s it if you want the answer. So what I said to Mr. Dobson quite frankly, was at the very mildest a term —

And so Ahern tried to explain his evidence before PTSB found he had sterling, and after. I went to see him in action in Dublin today. To be blunt, Ahern’s story stunk of horse shit.

Ahern was asked earlier this year about Carruth in his interview with Dobbo, and the tribunal was interested in one remark.

The particular bit the Tribunal was interested in was where Ahern talks about her evidence that she had made sterling lodgments to his and his daughters’ accounts (she says she can’t remember doing it though). He says he didn’t have a chance to tell the Tribunal about the source of the sterling, because he was too busy.

But the Tribunal argued that Ahern was informed of the sterling lodgments early in March, and he had plenty of opportunity to explain them. Ahern said yes, he was made aware of the sterling lodgments, but had no time to explain them to the Tribunal – which potentially would have saved Carruth from giving evidence at all.

Then, if his whole story was not already bizarre, Ahern went further. The sterling Carruth had lodged was an accumulation of salary cheques. But he had asked his friend Tim Kilroe (now dead, conveniently), to change into sterling for him. This had ended up being £15-17k stg in cash in his safe, which was then later lodged. Though Ahern can’t remember asking anyone to lodge it. He can’t even remember having the money at all. Besides that he also placed bets on horses – including winning £8,000 on two horses in 1996. Money later lodged to his daughters’ accounts.

SO the main conflict is this. Ahern said last year that during the time he had no bank account (1987-1993), he had saved cash of about £50,000 punts. He began lodging these savings in late 1993 and in 1994 once he had bank accounts. In January 1994, he opened a PTSB account lodging money to it then, and later over the year. He told the tribunal that these lodgments were from salary, and importantly contemporaneous salary cheques. That is, these lodgments were from money he was earning in 1994. That the accumulated savings prior to 1994 totalled £50,000.

But now he has changed his story. Because PTSB have found that the lodgments were in sterling, Ahern has had to adapt his story. He says its because he forgot about the sterling. It’s more likely because he didn’t envisage documentary evidence emerging to show sterling lodgments.

So now he says he had other savings prior to opening his bank accounts. £15-17k sterling was ’saved’ from his salary between 1990 and 1993, he says. That is on top of the £50k he already told the tribunal about. This sterling was held in cash in his safe, and would be dipped into for trips to England. But he had since forgotten he had so much sterling cash. And forgot ever lodging any to PTSB.

Another strange story was that one of the reasons he kept so much sterling cash in the 1990-1993 period was because he was thinking of investing in a property in Salford, Manchester, but later changed his mind. This was at a time when he said he had no money, and needed a digout from friends in late 1993. So why did he need a digout out from friends in 1993 to pay legal fees if he had over £70,000 at his disposal? Even if we accept £20,000 of that was earmarked for his daughters it still leaves us wondering why he needed a digout to pay legal fees, and later a digout to help with buying a house.

Truly bizarre, but I guess it’s par for the course.

Ahern looked the worse for wear. He is on the backfoot, and the questioning buildup to a crescendo will continue tomorrow.

Yea, you would guess it’s all over since Bertie Ahern resigned as Taoiseach. Well, it isn’t. And there was more explosive evidence. Didn’t hear about it? Quelle surprise. The media, read RTE, seem to be taking their eye off the ball.

Remember that whole B/T account thing? Remember how Ahern’s good friend Tim Collins swore in evidence that B/T stood for ‘Building Trust’? And remember how Ahern himself swore under oath that it stood for Building Trust (Q355)? And all those other St Luke’s workers who swore they knew of the existence of the account, but never asked about it?

Back in March, Blair Hughes and Ken McDonald, both of whom worked at the branch of PTSB that held the B/T account, swore in evidence that they always believed it stood for Bertie/Tim. They have no reason to lie.

Yesterday, two more workers from the branch, Lisa Jordan and Elizabeth Smyth swore in evidence that they also believed it stood for Bertie/Tim. Not only that, Lisa Jordan remembers Tim Collins coming in, and himself referring to it as the Bertie/Tim account. Here is what Ms Jordan swore:

The passbook for the B/T account was kept in this branch. I recollect on an occasion prior to Mr. Blair Hughes joining the branch in 1993, that Mr. Collins in a jocular manner when asking for the passbook for the B/T account referred to as the passbook for the Bertie Ahern/Tim account. I am certain that this was said in a jocular manner. I believed that in relation to the remark made by Tim Collins that it could have been heard by Elizabeth Smyth, Cathy Smith and Richard Buggy.

Smyth said:

I remember Tim Collins well. I would describe Mr. Collins as gregarious with a word for anybody. I would have seen him note only in the branch but around Drumcondra and in Kennedy’s public house where he would often be on a Friday evening with Mr. Ahern and other friends of Mr. Ahern.

It was my understanding from conversations in the branch, including some with Mr. Collins, that the B/T account was an account operated by Mr. Collins and that the B/T stood for Bertie and Tim. I recollect that Mr. Collins would ask for the passbook for the account, which was kept for safekeeping in the branch.

I do not recollect any reference to the B/T account as being a Building Trust account. I believed that the only connection of the B/T account to Fianna Fail was that Mr. Ahern was a minister and a Fianna Fail TD.

So. Four witnesses, with no apparent reason to lie, have directly contradicted the evidence of Bertie Ahern and Tim Collins in sworn evidence. Grainne Carruth directly contradicted her own and Bertie Ahern’s evidence, once physical evidence was produced.

The game is up.

And so we reach the end of the Ahern administration. It took 20 months of scandal to get him out of office, but he finally succumbed once his back was against the wall.

Some might argue I should wish the man well in his future endeavours, or allow him the grace of a peaceful exit from power.

I’m afraid I can’t do that. Ahern has damaged the body politic like no one since CJ Haughey. Ireland is worse off as a result.

Ahern wants to have his economic cake, and eat it, as it were. On the one hand he led a party with an ideology of not messing with a free and open market, letting low taxes (brought in by the prior administration) do their work and bring in US firms.

It worked, for a while. Those days are fast coming to an end – especially on the manufacturing end.

But people cannot now claim that Ahern is singularly responsible for Ireland’s economic prowess. If his government was hands off when it came to interfering in the free market, then how can he? Furthermore, surely it was not the work of any politician that led to the Celtic Tiger, but the sacrifice of PAYE workers all the way through the 1980s and 1990s who worked their asses off and paid high taxes, up until recent years when growth allowed for tax cuts.

What exactly did Ahern achive during his time in office? Can anyone tell me? His personality certainly was better than Bruton’s with regard to the peace process, but I remember Ahern coming into power in 1997, not long before the Good Friday Agreement was signed. Perhaps the deal could have been done without him, perhaps not.

His legacy? I would struggle to find a positive one. I can only agree with the words of Eamonn Sweeney. Ahern was nothing but a sniveller. A sneering idiot, who lauded Ireland’s economic prowess while not know what the fuck he was talking about. “Ireland is the largest software exporter in the world,” he shouted at the opposition a couple of years ago. He was arguing that Ireland is a true “knowledge economy”. He didn’t realise that all we do is package the discs and ship them off to countries in the third world with better broadband than we do. Broadband, he might say, what’s that? Cavan? Is that in Ireland?

He also presided over the largest case of clientelism in Irish history, creating a huge civil service, as the OECD recently criticised, buying thousands of votes with tens of thousands of jobs. Why do we need so many to govern so few? And why do we pay so much for it? And will all those civil servants, many employed since 1997, vote for FF and more of the same in the civil service; or an opposition that might slim down a bloated public sector? Fear is always good to get people motivated.

I am glad he is gone, an imbecile politician, with only himself, his cash, and his party to think about – the cult that is Fianna Fail. I look forward to him coming back to the Mahon Tribunal and answering questions about all that sterling, questions that the opposition and the fourth estate have failed to ask now for over a month.

Good riddance to you Mr Ahern. Ireland is better off without you.

It sounds even more crazy than Ahern’s tales. He was at the Tribunal today.

And just to repeat it for everyone, here is the video of his appearance on the Late Late in 1999.

And it seems, contrary to the views of FF, that readers of the RTE news website find this tribunal very interesting indeed. The same could be said of any tribunal story.

We knew it was coming. Ahern meets with the editor of the Sindo and responds to his own resignation. But even I was shocked by what he said during the interview.

In my humble opinion what Ahern suggests is almost treasonous. He also somehow does not understand the evidence of Grainne Carruth.

Ahern says:

I said I regretted what happened to Grainne. She is a good and loyal friend and I am sorry for what she had to go through.There was some criticisms in the media that I shouldn’t have allowed that happen. If I could have taken that challenge or chalice from her I would have done so. The tribunal called her as a witness and I couldn’t go in her place, all I could hope was that she would be well treated.

It is my view that Grainne was not well treated.She was harangued, which means that she was hassled, she was unfairly hassled and for the life of me I don’t understand why she was called back on the second day. I don’t see why it was necessary that a mother of three, who could not genuinely remember, she was paid pretty low money for doing very good work in my office, but why she had to be … . I think, the only witness that I can recall, who had the Tribunals of Inquiry Evidence Amendment Act with the threat of imprisonment read out to her. I don’t see why a colleague, who is after working for me for almost a decade, why it was necessary to say that she could be fined €300,000?

I don’t know. She finished up her evidence, she said she had a difficulty because it was mid-term, to the best of my knowledge because I haven’t been talking to her since. While I don’t know, the only thing that I can say is that her evidence was given in a short period the following day and the only answer that makes sense to the people I have talked to is that whether it was meant intentionally or not, the effect of it was that it created in the media a cliff-hanger so that all this speculation would be around to give the impression that this mother of three would crack under pressure.

I said that Grainne was harangued and the tribunal transcript showed that this was the case, but that may be just my point of view. I am not going to go on forever about it, but let me say from the back of my heart that if I could have done anything to defend Grainne’s good name, I would have done so. She is a good person and she was treated unfairly.

Ms Carruth gave evidence for one hour at the end of day one, and for two hours on day two. I encourage anyone to read the transcripts, and see if what Ahern is saying is true.

Day 1 Starts at Q624
Day 2

Carruth was not harangued. There was little media pressure, they were asleep at the wheel at the time. She was simply asked some very straight forward questions. She claimed she could not remember, and the tribunal judges clearly did not believe her.

The one obvious question Fanning forgot to ask Ahern was, where did the sterling come from and why did he not tell the tribunal about it in his sworn affidavit?

We still don’t know.

Here is how Mr Ahern’s resignation unfolded. Mr Ahern’s gross salary when he was Finance Minister was £63,184.63 per annum. (Day 804 Q357). This is a combination of a TD’s and a Minister’s salary.

October 15, 2004

Mr Ahern is put on notice that the Tribunal will be making an order for discovery.

November 24, 2004

Mr Ahern is ordered to “discover all accounts held in any financial institution, whether held within or outside the State, in his own name either individually or jointly or for his benefit or into which he made lodgements of money or into which he caused or procured lodgements of money to be made or into which lodgements of money were made for his benefit”.

Following a request from Mr Ahern, the Tribunal directed that had he could limit the production of documentation to lodgments over £30,000. This was in line with the ‘Starry’ O’Brien libel case, and the original Gilmartin allegation.

This was to be complied with by January 11, 2005.

This applied to all accounts between January 1, 1988 and December 31, 1995. Mr Ahern had ALSO originally sought that only accounts held between January 1, 1989 and December 31, 1992 be subject to discovery.

This would have discovered nothing, since he later claimed he held no accounts during this period.(Day 756 Q96)

Without the knowledge of the tribunal, Ahern sought from the banks back office documentation relating a number of the lodgments. This emerged later in evidence. (Day 757 Q35) The documentation could not conclude the source of this money. Sandra Cullagh collected the documentation from the bank in January 2005. (Day 757 Q59). Ahern was able to glean that the cash lodgments were cash but not that some involved foreign exchange.

It also meant the Ahern knew that the tribunal would be unable to identify the source of the monies from back office documentation. (Day 757 Q65)

Ahern claims that at the time, he did not remember that there were large fx lodgments related to the amounts. (Day 757 Q70)

Also at the very same time Ahern went to Larkin and asked her to seek similar information from the same branch. She did so. (Day 757 Q87). Larkin then went to Ahern and told him the story.

Larkin was not being inquired of at this stage since she was not mentioned to the Tribunal until May 2006. (Day 757 Q89)

The affidavit provided in February (below) makes no mention of Ahern’s money being held in Larkin’s accounts, only that he transferred £50,000 to her. This is a crucial point. The discovery required him to declare all accounts held for his benefit.

January 10, 2005

Mr Ahern asks for an extension to the end of January as he is having difficulty assembling his figures. The Tribunal grants the extension.

February 7, 2005

The affidavit of discovery is provided to the Tribunal. In the affidavit, Mr Ahern says he has no outstanding tax liability and did not avail of the tax amnesty. It says Ahern kept no accounts during the period 1987 to 1993, and his salary cheques were cashed by either him or his staff. (Day 756 Q104)

The affidavit also noted briefly that Ahern had transferred money in December 1994 from his accounts to Celia Larkin’s accounts. It gave no further detail, including the fact the Larkin held these accounts for Mr Ahern’s benefit.

February 25, 2005

The Tribunal responds to Ahern’s affidavit. It wanted more. The Tribunal formed the view that it was necessary that Ahern make discovery and produce to the Tribunal all documentation in his power, possession or control relating to these accounts.

The Tribunal said the documentation should include all documents and records which would include correspondence, memoranda, financial records, bank accounts documents, include bank statements, lodgements, withdrawal slips, copy cheques, copy cheque stubs and other such documents and where applicable telephone records, diaries, personal and professional, whether electronically stored or otherwise, solicitor’s documents, documents of other advisers and other documents whatsoever which came into existence arising out of the lodgements to or withdrawals from the bank accounts as covered in paragraphs A and B of the Tribunal’s order of 24th November 2004.

In other words. It didn’t just want amounts of £30,000. It wanted everything.

It gave Ahern a deadline of March 27, 2005 to produce documents.

March 2005

Following from a long held agreement between AIB and the Tribunal, AIB ask that they only be obliged to furnish bare bank statements to their client and the tribunal, to save the onerous work of producing back office documentation. The tribunal agrees to this request, but says they may seek further information on specific lodgments. (Day 756 Q117)

May 27, 2005

The Tribunal seeks further information about specific lodgments, and asks Mr Ahern to give the necessary permission to AIB and PTSB to do so. This was necessary because the Tribunal had not made orders against those institutions, as was standard practice. The bank was not prepared to release documents without written approval from Ahern. (Day 756 Q117)

It attaches a list of lodgments it is seeking to investigate. Specifically the tribunal is interested in the second goodwill loan and the £19,142 lodgment.

June 10, 2005

Mr Ahern responds, giving his written authority.

October 21, 2005

The Tribunal receives the bank documentation in relation to AIB, though Ahern had received it slightly earlier. (Day 756 Q148) This is when the tribunal first learns the breadth of lodgments.

October 25, 2005

Having only cold bank documentation from AIB and PTSB, the Tribunal seeks a detailed narrative from Ahern in relation to all the transactions. The Tribunal was looking for a financial make over setting out is income and expenses, the sources of his monies from 1989 to 2002. (Day 756 Q153)

The Tribunal added:

“It is the view of the Tribunal that a detailed response to the above specific questions will significantly shorten the proposed public hearings. The Tribunal would be obliged for your client’s cooperation in this regard. The Tribunal is anxious to deal with the matter in correspondence, insofar as that is possible.” (Day 756 Q155)

The asked the narrative be provided by November 30, 2005.

March 3, 2006.

Three months later and the Tribunal again writes to Ahern. They have not received a response. He is asked to reply by March 24, 2006. Given the volume of transactions, the Tribunal prioritise specific transactions that they are seeking a narrative on.

These are £15,000 in December 1993, £30,000 in April 1994, the £20,000 in August 1994, the £24,838 in October 1994, and the £19,142 in December 1994. (Day 756 Q161, 162)

By this time the Tribunal had yet to be told any story by Ahern in relation to these amounts.

The Tribunal again stressed:

“The Tribunal is of course anxious to receive replies to all queries raised at the earliest possible opportunity. In addition, the Tribunal is also anxious to receive your client’s Affidavit of Discovery in compliance with the Tribunal’s order dated 24th November 2005″

March 7, 2006

Because of the delay, the Tribunal again write to Mr Ahern’s solicitors. This time seeking authority to interview people who may have acted on behalf in making lodgments to Mr Ahern’s accounts. (Day 756 Q167)

They ask he reply by March 16, 2006

March 27, 2006

Ahern’s legal team respond, almost four months after the deadline has passed. They are not happy. Mr Ahern later claimed the delay was due to the volume of documentation required. (Day 756 Q178)

“We would like the Tribunal to identify the precise allegations relating to our client that the Tribunal is currently investigating.” They then go on to talk about Gilmartin’s allegation of £15m via Bank of Ireland. (Day 756 Q171)

Mr Ahern only became aware of some of these specific allegations because of the O’Callaghan case, taken in late 2005, which obliged the tribunal to circulate documents to all affected parties. (Day 756 Q172, 173)

March 30, 2006

The Tribunal replies. They still are concerned that Ahern has not explained the five cash lodgments. (Day 756 Q194)They then again extend the time by which he must respond to April 21, 2006. He is warned that if he does not comply, that he will be summonsed to attend a public hearing on May 2. The tribunal then sets out in detail how Ahern should go about answering the tribunal’s questions. It also says that if Ahern does so, it may find that the lodgments warrant no further investigation.

In a second letter they make matters clear:

The Tribunal has not decided to conduct a public inquiry into the allegation,

1. That your client held or holds the sum of 15 million pounds in an account in Bank of Ireland in Jersey.

2. Your client may have held accounts in A Jersey, B, Liechtenstein, C, Dutch Antilles, D, England and consequentially information gathered in the preliminary investigative stage of that inquiry, will not be circulated other than the material which comprises prior statements of witnesses who may be cross-examined as to credibility arising there from.

A distinction should be made. The tribunal had not decided as yet to conduct an inquiry, meaning the tribunal had not made a decision as to whether investigate or not.

March 31, 2006

The Tribunal write again to Ahern’s solicitors. This time they say they will go direct to AIB and seek an order for discovery in relation to all accounts.

April 6, 2006

Ahern’s legal team replies. They give consent to the Tribunal interviewing people who made lodgments to Ahern’s accounts, including Sandra Cullagh and Grainne Carruth. The Tribunal is also assured that the rest will be forthcoming by the deadline of April 21.

April 21, 2006

The tribunal receives Ahern’s response. Des Peelo’s report is included, which details the lodgments.

This is the first time the tribunal learns a narrative explanation for the cash lodgments. Stories with which we are all now familiar. It is also the first mention of Celia Larkin holding money for Ahern.

Mr Peelo had access to no more documents than the Tribunal had already, he merely wrote the narrative.(Day 756 Q238) The tribunal then begins to investigate the narrative.

May 3, 2006

The Tribunal responds. It sets out to confirm the narrative. The Tribunal then sought access to any and all documents Peelo had used to make his conclusions, in order to confirm the narrative.

June 6, 2006

Mr Ahern responds. He claims legal privilege over documents relating to Peelo. (Day 756 Q300)

June 7, 2006

Mr Ahern via his solicitor informs the tribunal about the source of a large amount of the other lodgments outside of the 5 lodgments already discussed.

Mr Ahern says he believes the source of all these lodgements were his salary cheques, or an accumulation of salary cheques. (Day 756 Q315)

In September 2007 he swore under oath that this was the case. This is an important juncture. Ahern was saying that the other lodgments to his accounts were from salary. At the time, PTSB were unable to get documentation to either support or deny this story. So Ahern felt safe in this knowledge. He would continue to use this story until documentation emerged on March 3, 2008.

July 2006

In an exchange of letters, Ahern’s legal team criticise the tribunal for their tone in seeking access to what they believe is privileged information. (Day 756 Q323)

August 4, 2006

By August, the Tribunal was being accused of “threatening” Ahern with appearing in the witness box. (Day 756 Q336)

September 2006

Information is leaked to the Irish Times pertaining to the first digout loan. Ahern tells more in an interview on RTE. He makes statements to Dail Eireann.

Because of the leaks, the tribunal process was delayed until January 2007. (Day 756 Q345) But Ahern via Peelo is now talking to Revenue.

Notice the timing. Ahern’s relationship with the tribunal had deteriorated. We have to ask ourselves ‘qui bono’ or who benefited from the leak? In hindsight, one person benefitted – and that was Ahern himself. Or as Henry Kissinger put it: “If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.”

December 15, 2006

Des Peelo writing under the heading ‘additional voluntary discloscures’ tells the Revenue Commissioners that the IPBS have confirmed that they are unable to provide details re the two lodgements of £5,000 each. They have explained in writing that their records do not extend back to those dates.

Mr Ahern has no recollection as to the source of these lodgements. They may have been personal savings, political donations/gifts.

January 12, 2007

Mr Ahern tells the Revenue: “Whilst I believe these payments were in the nature of political donations, I have been unable at this remove in time, to identify their source or any details regarding same.”

January 29, 2007

The Tribunal write to Mr Ahern, seeking an explanation about the £19k and the £50k given to Larkin. (Day 756 Q347) They also seek information about the lodgment for £11,747.43. It should be made clear that as of this date, the Tribunal had no idea this transaction involved £10,000 sterling. (Day 756 Q348)

February 9, 2007

The Tribunal seek clarification from Ahern about Michael Wall and an account that allegedly held monies belonging to Ahern and Wall. Specifically the £28,772.90 which Ms Larkin says involved sterling, but only Michael Wall could say whether this was the case or not. (Day 756 Q349)

February 27, 2007

Ahern responds. (Day 756 Q355) It is worth reading the two letters made in response to the Tribunal inquiries. No where in the letters is the 11k mentioned as a sterling amount. (Day 756 Q362)

His lawyers also again complain about the tone of the tribunal.

March 2, 2007

The tribunal responds.

“Having considered the responses and the earlier correspondence dating from 2005, the Tribunal is of the opinion that the information so far provided via correspondence doesn’t resolve the Tribunal’s inquiries as to the source of the following payments made to Mr. Ahern and subsequently lodged as set out hereunder or the purposes for which the payments were made to him.”

1. Lodgement of 22,500 on 30th December 1993.
2. Lodgement of 30,000 broken down, on the 25th April 1994.
3. Lodgement of 20,000 to the account in the name of Georgina and Celia Ahern on the 8th August 1994.
4. Lodgement of 24,838.49 pounds on 11th October 1994.
5. Lodgement of 19,142.92 pounds on 1st December 1995.

The Tribunal also does not feel he has answered questions in relation to Ms Larkin in the sum of 50,000 pounds lodged to an account in the name of Ms. Celia Larkin on the 5th December 1994.

2. 11,743.74 lodged to an account in the name of Ms. Larkin on the 15th June 1995.
3. 9,655 pounds lodged to an account in the name of Ms. Larkin on the 24th July 1995.

It also says the Beresford purchase has not been explained.

It then invited Mr Ahern to private interview.

When questioned in evidence in September 2007, Ahern was asked why he had asked AIB in 2004: “Can you locate same on files and provide us with any information as to what the lodgement was made up of?”

Ahern had been asking AIB about these sums, but three years later had not given the Tribunal an account as to their source. (Day 757 Q33)

By inquiring of the bank, Ahern was able to learn that there was little documentation to show where the cash came from.

April 4, 2007

The tribunal receives documents from Peelo. It is a response to the Tribunal’s letter of March 2. Again in this report there is no reference to sterling. (Day 756 Q389) Mr Ahern later claimed he had not identified these amounts as sterling at that time.

April 5, 2007

Ahern is interviewed at his solicitor’s office by the tribunal. For the first time since the tribunal contacted Ahern in November 2004, he admits there were sterling lodgments. (Day 756 Q394)

May 2007

More information is leaked to the media prior to the general election, this related to the Micheal Wall payments. Ahern claims this is an attempt to ‘do him down’ in advance of the election. The source of the leaks is unknown. The Tribunal ceases hearings in advance of the election, as is normal.

May 27, 2007

The Tribunal restarts. For the first time we learn the full breath of information available to the Tribunal at that time. This is given in the Quarryvale II supplementary statement. (Day 725 Q394) Counsel for Mr Ahern begin their criticism of the Tribunal in public.

September 12, 2007

Celia Larkin gives evidence. She details her part of the story.

September 2007

Ahern gives evidence for the first time. He is taken through correspondence between him and the tribunal over the preceding three years.

November 2007

AIB assistant manager Philip Murphy gives evidence. He details various cash amounts given to him by Mr Ahern. Des Richardson and Padraic O’Connor also appear. Mr O’Connor denies he was a close friend of Ahern, as Ahern had alleged in the Dobson interview in 2006. He also says the donation he made was intended for Ahern’s constituency, not Mr Ahern personally.

December 5, 2007

Ahern’s solicitors write to Ahern under the heading “issue of fair procedures
29 and advance notice of Tribunal hypothesis”. They want access to any hypotheses that the tribunal may put to Ahern, in advance of Ahern giving evidence. The Tribunal refuse.

December 18, 2007

Another important juncture. Towards the end of the day, St Luke’s secretary Grainne Carruth gives evidence. It is Ahern’s case that in relation to certain sums lodged to his accounts, specifically some sums to his PTSB account:

“Mr. Ahern does not have specific recollections of each of these transactions. His general practice being that Sandra Cullagh or Grainne Carruth of the Drumcondra Constituency Office would do one of the following.
1. Cash the cheque and lodge some of the proceeds to the Georgina/Cecilia account and then give the balance to Mr. Ahern or lodge the cheque to the account some of the cheque being encashed”.

Ms Carruth finished school and worked for Ahern. She was paid by Des Richardson via a company that was also involved in the Padraic O’Connor ‘donation’.

She was also asked about cash in St Luke’s. She could not confirm or deny there were large amounts of cash in Ahern’s safe. (Day 802 Q1009) Her evidence was that she would cash some of Ahern’s salary cheques, and hand the cash to Ahern in the period 1987-1993, when Ahern allegedly had no bank account. On occasion she would lodge money to his daughters’ accounts.

Critically, Carruth is asked about the lodgment of £30,000 sterling, which Ahern claims someone lodged on his behalf. Carruth is asked if she did. (Day 802 Q1051)

“Q1051. Yeah. So it is possible that you would be in the list of people that he would have asked to do this in the sense that you did banking transactions for him?

A. I never dealt in Sterling.”

She is also asked whether Ahern had contacted her in 2007, to ask her if she had lodged that £30,000 in 1995. She replies no.

Critically, Carruth is then asked by Judge Keys whether the money she lodged only related to salary cheques, and never involved FX transactions. Under oath, she replied no. (Day 802 Q1055)

December 20,21 2007

Friends of Ahern give evidence, backing up his story of digout loans. Ahern again gives evidence. During this evidence he accuses the Tribunal of trying to ’stitch him up’. (Day 804 Q554) This was after a scenario was put to Ahern that a loan taken out in 1993 by him was a back-to-back loan. The Tribunal was also putting it to Ahern that various lodgments were from foreign exchange lodgments in round amounts.

February 2008

Ahern appears again. He is now asked about his PTSB account, opened in January 1994, and about lodgments to the account. Ahern is unable to identify the source of the £5,000 opening lodgment. (Day 825 Q126) Ahern clams the bulk of lodgments into this account over the next 2 years were from salary cheques. (Day 802 Q216, 228, 230)

March 3, 2008

PTSB manager Blair Hughes attends the Tribunal for private interview. The Tribunal is seeking further information on the lodgments to Ahern’s PTSB account. He details lodgments to Ahern’s accounts in a statement. He says Grainne Carruth would lodge money to Ahern’s accounts. This contradicts her evidence that she cashed the cheques. Furthermore, most of the lodgments made by Carruth were, he recalled, and having documentary evidence, in cash sterling.

This was directly contradicting both Carruth and Ahern. Up until then Ahern had claimed that all of the money came from salary cheques. (Day 839 Q29)

March 6, 2008

Another significant date, and also the date on which Ahern also would have learned of the contradiction.

The Tribunal writes to Carruth, seeking an explanation for the lodgments. (Day 839 Q626). They also invite her to private interview to give a narrative. She fails to reply.

March 19, 2008

Hughes gives evidence to the Tribunal. The detail of the sterling lodgments is publicised. Carruth is also called, and is asked about the sterling lodgments. She says she cannot recall dealing in sterling. (Day 839 Q629)

Having admitted that she lodged sums to Ahern’s daughters’ accounts on the same day as the sterling transaction, the tribunal judges clearly find it unbelievable that she cannot remember sterling lodgments. They ask her to consider her position overnight.

March 20, 2008

Carruth returns. The tribunal details the penalties for perjury and for obstructing a tribunal of inquiry. Carruth sticks to her story that she cannot remember sterling lodgments, totaling £15,500. Her name appears on most of the lodgment dockets relating to sterling. At the time she earned £3,000 a year. She said: “I have no recollection in dealing in large amounts of money”. (Day 839 Q703)

She concedes the money must have come from Ahern but she cannot recall.

March 2008

Due probably to the Easter weekend, much of the media fails to realise the import of the story. RTE do not place it high on their news agenda.

Ahern refuses to answer questions in relation to the contradictory evidence.

April 2, 2008

Ahern announces his resignation. He says it has “nothing to do” with what happened at the Tribunal.

We still do not know the source of the sterling, or why he failed to tell the Tribunal of it.

Politics.ie looks like it will be subject of legal action on the part of Mr Ahern’s solictors.

Update: P O’Neill informs me that the site has moved its hosting to the US.

Ah. It is refreshing to see someone joining the dots.

I’ll cut to the chase here. The IT hints at something I have been digging up for the last couple of weeks, thanks mostly to some archived posts on Politics.ie.

You see, I only found out recently that Michael Wall withdrew £50,000 in cash from an account in Galway, some time after he sold the house to Ahern.

Why is this important? Suspected money laundering, using a house to do it. Of course no one is alleging that Ahern was involved in money laundering – but when you read this report it is exactly what springs to mind.

The Beresford Avenue house was purchased in March 1995. Wall is a native of Co Mayo now based in Manchester. He is a long-time supporter of Ahern’s who got to know Ahern during his visits to Manchester. Celia Larkin helped Wall identify the Drumcondra house, which the tribunal has been told was to be rented by Ahern, but to be available to Wall during his visits to Dublin.

Ahern’s solicitor, the late Gerry Brennan, acted for Wall when Wall purchased the house for £138,000. Wall took out a mortgage of £96,600. When stamp duty is included, Wall’s contribution to the house purchase comes to approximately £50,000, a sum that arises at both ends of the house purchase story.

In January 1995, Ahern withdrew £50,000 from his accounts in AIB O’Connell Street. He has said he used the money to buy £30,000 in sterling cash and that he kept it and the remaining Irish currency in his safe in St Luke’s. Over time he gave the money to Larkin, who was working on refurbishing the house Wall had purchased, Ahern has said.

No records have been found that show Ahern purchased £30,000 sterling in early 1995 and he did not mention the transaction until he was first asked about sterling lodgements by the tribunal during a private interview in 2007. Ahern cannot say where the sterling was purchased. If Ahern did not purchase the sterling, then the question arises as to the source of £30,000 sterling that was lodged by Larkin and Ahern to accounts in 1995.

In 1997, after the sudden death of Brennan, Ahern purchased the house from Wall for £180,000, which constituted a loss for Wall after costs. The men engaged separate solicitors for the transaction. The tribunal is expected to hear evidence later this year to the effect that Wall’s solicitor lodged the net proceeds of the house sale to an account of Wall’s in Galway on November 5th, 1997. A month later the sum of £50,000 was withdrawn from the account by Wall in cash. Wall has not been able to produce any records showing where the money went thereafter.

Evidence on these matters has yet to be heard, but nothing said to date has indicated that this sum turned up in Ahern’s accounts after it left Wall’s account. Ahern has said he has disclosed all his accounts to the tribunal.

The tribunal has discovered that Wall made a will during the period when he was the owner of the house in which he left the house to Ahern or, in the event of his demise prior to that of Wall, to Ahern’s two daughters. Ahern expressed amazement when told of this fact by the tribunal in private interview. Brennan acted for Wall when Wall made the will. If Wall had died, his life assurance would have paid the mortgage, and Ahern would have been left an unencumbered house.

It may be over a week late, but it seems that the media is waking up to the Ahern story. The Easter holidays may have caught everyone on the hop, perhaps. Last week I was literally stunned by the lack of reaction to Carruth’s evidence. Not a whisper from RTE. Not much from the Irish Times. Radio shows were muted.

A number of things have now changed.

First, the Late Late Show last night. The audience supported Eamon Dunphy, and he was the only one criticising Ahern. Not only did the audience support him, they cheered him. And they literally laughed at Eoghan Harris, who made an absolute fool of himself. Waters just didn’t make a coherent point.

Second, the Irish Times leads with some figures, and inside it looks further into the Tribunal, more so than it has done in a very long time. The Irish Examiner also has a two-page spread on the figures, though includes only money tied directly to Ahern’s accounts, or monies traced directly to him (totalling 250k, not 450k). Unlike the Irish Times, it does not include constituency monies or the B/T account. This is really a matter of discretion for the paper.

The Irish Times also looks at:

Questions over significant sums
Complicated cash deals surround Beresford
More tax queries following tribunal evidence
Collins unclear as to who owns building

The Evening Herald plan to run a story on the Resign, Mr Ahern Facebook group, of which I am founder (though the group is owned by its members).

Ahern will face questions in the Dail next Wednesday. I believe we are reaching a tipping point.

I expect no less than his resignation. If not, then the clock is ticking.

[Disclosure: I work for the Irish Examiner]

Readers will be aware that I have been following events at the tribunals closely for several years. When I lived in Dublin I attended Flood and Moriarty on a regular basis. I saw the evidence of many ’star’ witnesses including James Gogarty, Ray Burke, Liam Lawlor, Charlie Haughey, Denis O’Brien, Michael Lowry, and many others.

You may not be aware, given the lack of media coverage, but last week was probably the most important week in the history of the Flood/Mahon tribunal.

It was the most explosive evidence I have ever heard. It was certainly also one of the most dramatic weeks. Over two days, Wednesday 19th and Thursday the 20th of March, we heard clear and concise contradictory evidence against the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. This evidence was based in part on the recollection of employees of his bank branch and on documentary evidence that recently became available to the Tribunal.

In terms of the so-called Bertiegate saga, the evidence on those days is as important, if not more so, as the day the scandal first came to light following a leak to the Irish Times in September 2006. It was more important than all of the days Ahern gave evidence combined. It was more important than all the evidence given by Ahern’s friends and colleagues.

It has been shown that when Ahern was asked about lodgments to his Irish Permanent account he believed that there was a lack of documentary evidence to either support or deny his story. The bank had said they could not find documentary evidence. So Ahern told the tribunal that lodgments came from an accumulation of salary cheques.

The bank later found documentary evidence. And this documentary evidence proved that lodgments to Ahern’s accounts were made in cash, in Sterling. Ahern had never told this to the tribunal, at any stage, in the prior three years.

When his secretary Grainne Caruth, who made the lodgments on Ahern’s behalf, was asked about these lodgments she was shocked. She then claimed that she could not remember lodging the Sterling sums to Ahern’s accounts. She could not remember lodging the equivalent of two years’ of her own salary in one day.

The judges clearly did not believe that she could not remember. Which means she was lying under oath. Perjury.

It also means that the Taoiseach lied to the Tribunal. It could also mean that many of his friends lied to the Tribunal. This includes Tim Collins, who claimed the B/T account was a Building Trust account, when really it was the Bertie/Tim account.

The upshot of all this is that Ahern also committed perjury. Collins too. His digout friends are looking more suspicious. A criminal conspiracy if you will.

So our leader, our Taoiseach, lies under oath. He may say he ‘forgot’ to the tell the tribunal about sterling. But this does not cut it. Sterling went into his personal accounts, and he never told the Tribunal. He thought they would never find out about it for lack of documentary evidence. But unfortunately for him, the evidence turned up. Now he is caught.

And how did RTE, which prides itself on Tribunal issues, cover this massive story? With silence.

The story was demoted to second or third on the news agenda on both days. There were no talking heads live from the tribunal, simply stock news reports, with little follow up analysis to explain the gravity of the news. No doorstopping of Ahern over the weekend.

By Sunday, it’s influential This Week programme on RTE Radio 1 was on the story. Except a newbie, and apparently a trainee, was put on the task of helping us understand the week’s events. She failed miserably. It was an embarrassment.

By this week, it has fallen off the news agenda. Ahern has simply refused to talk about it. Gone to ground. Will deal with it later. And the journos it seems have accepted that.

It is not good enough. It is not acceptable.

Where did the Sterling come from and why did Ahern not tell the Tribunal? Two simple questions. We need answers. Not at the end of May. Not in the Tribunal. Not next week. Now.

I, for one, demand it.

Try and count how many times in this video we now know that he misled us. I remember at the time watching and not believing a word he was saying. I guess I was right.

The syncing is poor, I may try another upload.

Update: YouTube in three parts:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Caruth has just said she did lodge Sterling for Ahern.

Where did it come from?

Resign now, Mr Ahern

These really are staggering sums from 1994-1995. The majority are cash transactions involving Sterling. At the time, Bertie Ahern was earning about £30,000 Irish a year.

Bank loan, £19,115.97, December 23, 1993
£22,500, December 30, 1993 (The supposed first digout)
£5,000, January 31, 1994
£4,119.59, March 9, 1994 (Sterling)
£1,028.40, March 9, 1994 (Sterling)
£1,028.40, March 9, 1994 (Sterling)
£7,000, March 23, 1994
£30,000, April 25, 1994
£3,518.99, May 9, 1994 (Sterling)
£1,000, May 9, 1994 (Sterling)
£1,000, May 9, 1994 (Sterling)
£50.63, May 10, 1994 (Sterling)
£1,434.15, May 23, 1994
£20,000, August 8, 1994
£24,838.49, October 11, 1994 (This is when he apparently needed a digout to buy a house) (Sterling)
£3,970.19, October 28, 1994 (Sterling)
£28,772.90, December 5, 1994 (US Dollars) (Ahern contends this is the 30k Wall lodgment)
£50,000, December 5, 1994 (Probably a relodgment)
£10,060.71, April 12, 1995
£11,743.74, June 22, 1995 (Sterling)
£19,142.92, December 1, 1995 (Sterling)
£5,000, December 21, 1995

The total, but excluding the £50k relodgment, stands at £220,305.08. That includes the soft loan at the start.

Note: Several of the smaller transactions involve his daughters. Some involve accounts operated by Celia Larkin.

The B+T account is not included, for now.

March 19: Judge Keys to counsel:

All we want is the truth. That’s what we’re looking for.

Aren’t we all.

The evidence at the Tribunal today was nothing short of explosive. Unfortunately it received scant coverage.

First, the manager of Irish Permanent Building Society, where Ahern had his personal account.

Blair Hughes says he remembers Sterling transactions. Documentary evidence proves it. This directly contradicts Ahern’s story that they were salary lodgments. He also said the B/T account, which was held in the same branch, had no connection whatever to St Luke’s or Fianna Fail. He assumed B/T stood for Bertie and Tim, at the time. He had no evidence it was anyone else’s account. Hughes also seen Grainne Caruth in person in the branch, and believes she was involved in Sterling transactions into the personal accounts of Ahern.

Secondly,Ken McDonald of the same branch. He more or less concurred with Hughes. There was also at least one foreign exchange lodgment to what is variously referred to as the B+T, B/T and BxT account.

Thirdly, is the devasting account of Grainne Caruth.

Here is a woman who earned £66 a week, or about £3,500 a year. She was paid by one of Des Richardson’s odd companies, Willdover.

On March 9, 1994, the following happened:

10.24am: £4,000 Sterling changed to Irish and lodged.
10.28am: £1,000 Sterling was changed and lodged.
10.31am: £1,000 Sterling was changed and lodged into Cecilia Ahern’s account. The docket was signed by Caruth.
10.33am: £1,000 Sterling was changed and lodged into Georgina Ahern’s account. The docket was signed by Caruth.

On May 9, 1994, the following happened.

10.56am: £1,000 Sterling was changed and lodged into Georgina Ahern’s account. The docket was signed by Caruth.
10.58am: £1,000 Sterling was changed and lodged into Cecilia Ahern’s account. The docket was signed by Caruth.

Later in October that year, Caruth signed more lodgment dockets in relation to £4,000 Sterling.

In April 1995, Cyprian Brady TD lodged over £10,000 to the account.

In December 1995, Caruth’s name appears again, this time a £5,000 lodgment.

And does Caruth remember any of this? In one day, lodging the equivalent of two years’ salary? In Sterling?

Nope. Not a bit.

The Chairman was incredulous. She has contradicted previous evidence. She denies she was involved in Sterling transactions.

Her story is incredible. And she could be the next to break after a night to ponder, ala Frank Dunlop.

Donagh over at Dublin Opinion has a good, and indeed lengthy summation of the Tim Collins/Boyne site deal. One would wonder whether Ahern got a fee from Collins.

Nowhere in the media have I seen this tabulation. It is a record of the transactions the Tribunal have postulated involved foreign exchange.

Property developer Tom Gilmartin has said that he had been told sometime in 1992 by Owen O’Callaghan that Bertie Ahern TD had been paid by Mr O’Callaghan the sum of £80,000 made up of £50,000 in 1989 and £30,000 on an unspecified date.

It should be remembered that Mr Ahern had no bank account in those years, only opening his first bank account in December 1993. So if he did receive cash bribes in Irish punts or foreign currencies then he would have had no bank accounts in which to lodge them.

There are four main foreign exchange lodgments:

* The £24,838.49 lodgment on October 11, 1994 equates to £25,000 Sterling
* The £28,772.90 lodgment on December 5, 1994 equates to $45,000 US dollars

* The £9,743.74 lodgment on June 22, 1995 equates to £10,000 Sterling
* The £19,142.92 lodgment on December 1, 1995 equates to £20,000 Sterling

The sterling lodgments equate to £55,000 Sterling (circa £53,000 punts)
The dollar lodgments equate to $45,000 US Dollars (circa £30,000 punts)

Added up, the foreign exchange lodgments amount to £82,498.05.

It’s a figure very close to the original allegation, isn’t it?

Hmm. It gets better. Let’s assume that O’Callaghan gave the £55,000 Sterling to Ahern in 1989. Obviously currencies fluctuate, so if it was his intent to give £50,000 Irish in 1989 then he would have had to have given more Sterling. In early 1990, the only figures I am able to find, the Sterling/Punt exhange rate was £1stg to £0.91 punts.

In 1989 therefore, £55,000 Sterling would equate to about £50,050 Irish, if we take that sample exchange rate.

Since the allegation for the £30,000 does not mention a date, except to say that it was in 1992 or before, I cannot check it against exchange rates. But if we assume that the exchange took place in the same year, 1989, then in early 1990, $1 bought you about £1.58 punts. That sample rate equals $48,400. Obviously if the exchange rate was about £1.50, then it would equate to $45,000 in 1989. I cannot check if this is the case.

Update: This website provides some tantalising data. In 1989 the US dollar exchnage rate was £1.41 on average. But in early 1990 it was £1.58. This leads me to believe that in 1989 it is entirely plausible that O’Callaghan bought $45,000 with £30,000 punts.

But since Ahern would have had to have been Minister for Finance we must limit our search to 1991 and 1992. Between April and October 1991, The US dollar traded a median price of £1.50. Between July and October 1992, it also traded at around that level. This provides us with two windows during which an exchange could have taken place with regard to the Golden Island tax designation, which Ahern signed in the dying minutes of the FF/Labour government in 1994.

Confused?

I’ll put it simply. The totals of sterling and dollar lodgments to his accounts would equate exactly with the £80,000 Ahern is said to have received in 1989 currency values.

Of course, this is all just speculation.

But I do wonder is the Tribunal aware of these calculations.

One of the very first reactions I got to reading the transcript of Tim Collins is the following:

Rehearsed.

Between Q.1 and Q.200 Collins is vague about everything. He can’t remember. He doesn’t know. He can’t remember. Don’t know. Just can’t remember anything, it was all so long ago. Most of his answers amount to that in their totality.

But you get the Q.68. Collins is being asked about a £10,000 lodgment to the B/T account on January 31, 1993. This was just after the general election of 1992, but the lodgment was made into an account unconnected with the election. Collins is asked to explain.

As if by magic, he remembers everything. You can’t shut him up.

Well the period of time would have been over the Christmas period, so it would have been put in after, after Christmas.
The situation on the building trust account is that when the House Committee, which were four or five members, five members, decided that if we had a surplus monies coming in and it was decided by the committee and various members of the committee that we would put a sinking funding together called a building trust in the event of and my view at the time, in the event of anything ever happening to Bertie Ahern got knocked down or anything like that, the trustees would not be held responsible for any debt on St. Luke’s and to this day I hold that view, although some of the members have since died.

And where we thought we could possibly, we had enough money for the election, we would put money in or cheques or whatever into the building trust account. And that was the whole idea behind the building trust for, call it a rainy day, a sinking fund, call it what you like. But that was my view on it and it was particularly another member that has since deceased as well, that was his view as well. That we would have a rainy fund day there. Because we bought St. Luke’s and it gave problems. At the end of the day I, particularly myself, I wasn’t the youngest at the time, that I didn’t want to be held responsible for it all, any debt on the house, you know.

What the hell is he on about?

Davy Stockbrokers donated £5,000 towards Ahern’s election campaign, on November 11, 1992. That cheque, along with another cheque for £5,000 was not lodged until January. It just sat in St Luke’s apparently. All the way through the election campaign. And then it was lodged to the B/T account after the election. Into an account in the name of Tim Collins.

But on the same day as Collins opened that bank account back in 1992, the FF organisation opened an account too, for the purpose of the election.

The B/T account raised £28,730.

The Dublin Central constituency election account raised £500.

And by the time the election was over, the account was overdrawn to £1,572.65.

Asked why this was so, Collins said: “I can’t explain that.” (Q59)

I’m not normally one to blow my own trumpet, but this time I make an exception.

Ten months ago now, myself and Anthony came across a curious passage in a book about Bertie Ahern. The passage detailed how St Luke’s was bought, and the very strange circumstances in which it was renovated. Some folk over on Politics.ie also had the St Luke’s deal flagged.

Now it appears that St Luke’s, and constituency funding, go to the core of all the money sloshing around Drumcondra.

If I was a betting man, I would make the following punt:

a) Money was being collected for the purpose of funding an election campaign and/or constituency funds in 1989 and 1992.

b) Large amounts of donations ended up in accounts not directly linked with the constituency or with Fianna Fail.

c) Ahern, and members of his inner circle know of the existence of these accounts.

Conclusion: Money intended for Fianna Fail ended up in other bank accounts.

It’s not exactly out there given the context of other members of Fianna Fail taking money that was meant for the party but ending up in their own pockets. CJH, Pee Flynn to name two.

One has to ask: Why are FF not upset about this? And have the gardai been made aware?

Just in case you missed it. Ahern speaking on September 26, 2003.

Ah what a tangled web we weave:

TAOISEACH BERTIE Ahern’s friend and personal solicitor, the late Gerard Brennan, acted for Celia Larkin when she purchased a house in Dublin using funds from Fianna Fáil, according to documents in the Registry of Deeds, writes Colm Keena , Public Affairs Correspondent

Mr Ahern has told the Mahon tribunal that £30,000 given to Ms Larkin in 1993 came from funds controlled by a party trust of which Mr Brennan was a member, and that the money was given as a loan.

But did the trust control the account?

Mr Ahern has told the tribunal that he did not know of the decision to give Ms Larkin the money until after the purchase of the house. He said the decision to give the money as a loan to Ms Larkin, to assist her help her elderly relatives, was agreed by all the trustees. The trustees were Mr Brennan, Joe Burke, Tim Collins, the late Jimmy Keane and the late Paddy Reilly. The sole signatory on the B/T account was Mr Collins.

Is it possible that money donated to FF ended up buying a house for Celia Larkin? I shudder to think.

Fianna Fail’s Noel O’Flynn and Billy Kelleher talking about their criticisms of John Ellis and Pee Flynn. Interesting how O’Flynn wonders about Flynn taking money for himself that was meant for the party.. sounds familiar.

The clip is from Primetime, March 2, 2000.

Primetime, October 1999

Meanwhile, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, who delivered the most robust defence yet of the Taoiseach yet during a visit to Belfast on Wednesday, insisted yesterday that “Charles Haughey was a great politician”.

Asked if Mr Haughey had not been shown to be corrupt, Mr Ahern, following a meeting with Northern Ireland Secretary of State Shaun Woodward said: “No, he wasn’t.”

By those standards, Ahern is an angel.

Are these guys even on the same planet as the rest of us? If Ahern is saying Haughey of all people was not corrupt, then he has just wiped the slate clean for every politician in the history of the State, since no one was more corrupt than Haughey.

I really am sick of this shit. It’s time for Ahern, actually both Aherns, to resign.

The tribunal will be required to ascertain whether there were substantial payments, who the donors were, how much was involved, when they were made, whether any of the controversial decisions were made at that time involving that donor and whether, as a consequence, the tribunal believes that either Mr. Haughey or Deputy Lowry did any act or made any decision to confer any benefit on that specific donor in respect of that particular transaction.

Deputy Spring has raised the issue of the party leader’s allowance during Fianna Fáil’s period in Opposition. In so far as I could with little available records I am satisfied, having spoken to the person who administered the account, that it was used for bona fide party purposes, that the cheques were prepared by that person and countersigned by another senior party member. Their purpose was to finance personnel, press and other normal supports for an Opposition leader. There was no surplus and no misappropriation. The person involved had sole control of the account. The money came in, the person lodged the cheque, dealt with the bills and invoices and paid those not covered by the ordinary allowance. The account as far as her excellent recollection goes was normally short, not the other way around. I have spoken to her at some length. She has served many Taoisigh beginning with Mr. Jack Lynch. We consider her to be totally honourable.

That senior party member was one Bertie Ahern.

Of course we now know that none of this is true. Haughey used taxpayers money for his own benefit. And somehow, Ahern never knew.

Dail record

Since the line being given by Fianna Fail is that we should await the report of the Tribunal, let us cast our minds back to 2002, and the publication of the Tribunal’s Second Interim Report. The report dealt with the first five years of its investigations, from 1997 to 2002. During that time it investigated the Gogarty Module, the Century Radio Module and the Brennan/McGowan module.

The report can be read in full at the Mahon Tribunal wiki.

It is interesting to watch the reaction to the report. First, let’s look at a report on Ahern’s dealings with the corrupt Ray Burke, and what Ahern did or didn’t know about Burke taking €2.25m in bribes during his 30 years of political life. This is from PrimeTime, September 29, 2002.

Ahern has yet to really answer those questions. Almost six years later.

Next, let’s look at the panel discussion. In it, Mary Hanafin is challenged by Mark Little on the veracity of Ahern’s statements – sounds familiar. John Gormley hits the nail on the head during the discussion, but clearly he has lost his mojo since 2002. “That was then and this is now,” he might say. Coincidentally the discussion revolves around taking a £30,000 cash donation – also sounds familiar. Joan Burton is succinct also, but I’ve edited her out for now because the video is too long for YouTube.

PJ Mara is also mentioned – a guy who was Director of Elections again last year, despite having forgotten to tell the Tribunal of an offshore bank account, and failing to cooperate with the Tribunal. Oh and then there was that little matter of Mara getting a ‘digout’ from briber Oliver Barry and one Dermot Desmond during the 1980s. Poor Mara fell on hard times – sounds familiar. I suppose we could call it the Mara defence.

We have to ask ourselves, what was done following the publication of the Second Interim Report. Who was prosecuted? Who resigned? What was the reaction? If the answer is ‘feck all’, then what can we expected after the publication of the next report?

And what of Ahern himself? Fast forward to 2003. It is not the first time he has made contradictory statements, or misled the public. A year later he is dealing with the tax evasion of Michael Collins TD – and that thorny issue of tax clearance certificates is again raised. Oh and then there was Denis Foley, the other FF TD tax evader. And Ray Burke, the corrupt politician. So many contradictory statements, so little time.

PrimeTime goes through them on September 30, 2003:

On a trip to New York, Ahern said: “I can’t recall any member of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party not having a tax clearance certificate.” Is that so, Mr Ahern?

PrimeTime with a good summary of the latest on Ahern:

More stories spun. I don’t have time to look into his evidence in detail, but I will. Things to note:

1. He didn’t pay taxes that he should have – tax evasion?
2. As P O’Neill notes, why did he get cheques from family and cash from friends?
3. St Luke’s rears its ugly head again.

Bertie Ahern: Taoiseach and Peacemaker” by Ken Whelan and Eugene Masterson is proving to be a very badly written book.

To finance the purchase, they [Kett and Kiely] brought together 25 local well-to-do supporters who pledged £1,000 each, with further contributions over a five year period. This was sufficient to put together a mortgage for the house with the repayments paid through the constituency organisation’s own bank.

The purchase price in the mid-80’s was £57,000. The house was assigned to a group of five trustees – again, not party activists – who for legal purposes vested the property in the Dublin Central Fianna Fail organisation. The senior TD was Bertie Ahern and St Luke’s effectively became his headquarters.

..

When the purchase of St Luke’s was closed it became obvious to all and sundry that the house needed serious refurbishment as there was a foundation crack in the structure. This was costed at a further £50,000 and, when approved by the trustees, the work took over a year and half to complete.

Some of the original contributors dropped out over the following few years or simply made occasional donations to the mortgage on St Luke’s. This shortfall on the purchase and redevelopment of St Luke’s combined with the salaries of the full-time constituency workers there together with sundry expenses, were causing serious headaches and making huge inroads into Ahern’s private time, until Des Richardson arrived and restructured the fund-raising requirements of Dublin Central through his annual Royal Hospital Dinner.

But no. At Q.54 Ahern says “I wouldnt have considered him one of the organisers of that function.”

At Q.413, Ahern goes into a lenghty description of St Luke’s history. He says they spent £200,000. €47,000 is still sitting in an account intended for St Luke’s.

At Q 440, Ahern gives more detail. saying it cost 89,000 for the renovations. He says the mortgage is currently 75,000, and the constituency has 90,000 including the 47,000.

How long have Fianna Fail hacks been texting into RTE news programmes in an orchestrated bid to make people believe the Irish people are bored of the Ahern story?

I don’t know about you, but every time I checked the Irish Times or Irish Independent website over the last number of weeks, stories relating to Ahern have ranked at least in the top three most read, if not usually the most read story of the day.

I have noticed that in increasing numbers comments supporting the Taoiseach and critcising the media have become far more common. What is going on?

RTE today:

Here is the CRO company printout. 2110765_11.pdf

First question. What involvement, if any, did the State-owned Industrial Credit Corporation have with Proximity, or 72 Amiens Street? Ah yes, the mortgage was taken out by Ahern et al with ICC.

Brian Cole appears to be an engineer, and also at the time a director of Building Advisory Services Limited. Kevin O’Brien is a former director, having resigned on June 28, 1989. Mr Cole replaced him. Solicitors acting for the firm are Kilroy and Co, Leeson street.

According to the Irish Times, the company’s address is “a five-bedroom dormer bungalow”. (1999) (It is normal to list residential addresses as company premises)

Sherry FitzGerald held four Clontarf auctions over the last week: a five-bedroom dormer bungalow at 102a Howth Road was withdrawn at £350,000 and sold later for a higher figure.

Here is the Tribune story.

Hmm. I’ve spent the last few hours going over Dail television archives. I am posting statements the Taoiseach made, that were of concern to the Tribunal, to YouTube. On a personal level it is clear to me. Ahern outright lied to Dail Eireann. Without a doubt.

I can say that because of information that has come to light since then. The Gilvarry letter, the letters between Revenue and Ahern, the Tribunal evidence.

I guess we have to ask ourselves, is it acceptable?

Padraic O’Connor. Ahern says it was a bankdraft… “it could not have been a company cheque.” Technically he is right, in fairness. But that is only because the company cheque O’Connor wrote was paid to another company, EuroWorkForce run by FF fundraiser Des Richardson, and Des Richardson then drew a bank draft from a Bank of Ireland account. Ahern did not receive anything personally from Padraic O’Connor.

I have transcribed the first of the letters.

It is in PDF format here

We knew this was coming. Ahern has decided to take a case to the High Court and is challenging aspects of its investigation. Ireland.com reports:

Today, lawyers acting for Mr Ahern in the High Court in Dublin secured leave to seek a judicial review challenging the handing over of specific documents, including advice from a banking expert.

Despite the political tension surrounding the work of the tribunal, Mr Ahern insisted today’s action referred to legal technicalities and said he plans to appear as a scheduled witness at the tribunal next week.

Mr Ahern later told reporters: “These are a few technical legal issues where my legal team advised that I have absolutely no alternative.”

The Taoiseach, who was not in court, is also seeking to prevent the tribunal questioning him on statements made under the privilege of the Dáil parliament.

“They (his legal team) say the Dáil privilege, which has always been challenged by politicians, and the other two issues are related to professional advice that my legal team got independently, and the tribunal are seeking that advice,” said Mr Ahern.

“The legal team say that that is not proper procedure and the third point is, where the tribunal have independent legal advice, financial advice, and they won’t give it to my people.”

He is seeking legal privilege over the documents, which he believes should be subject to the same immunity as if he were a witness before the High Court.

Brian Murray SC, for the Taoiseach, maintained that the tribunal has no right to question statements he made about his personal finances under privilege in the Dail, even if they were repeated elsewhere.

He also secured a temporary stay on a production order until Thursday afternoon, when the matter will come back before the High Court.

The documents, which contain advice from banking expert Paddy Strong, had been due to be handed to the Mahon Tribunal at 4.30 this afternoon.

During the ex-party application made by the Taoiseach’s legal team, Mr Murray said the Taoiseach is also seeking the discovery of documents from the planning tribunal in relation to allegations regarding foreign exchange transactions.

Mr Justice Bryan McMahon said the Taoiseach has an arguable case.

The Taoiseach, who sat in the tribunal witness box over several days in September and December, is due to appear before the Mahon Tribunal again for two days on February 21st and 22nd.

Last month, the government narrowly won a Dáil vote on a motion supporting the Mahon Tribunal after a heated debate by TDs.

The government motion urged the tribunal to continue its work and said it looked forward to receiving its report as soon as possible.

The motion also condemned the leaking of tribunal documents as a breach of confidentiality and said it infringed the rights of those affected.

Bryan McMahon is an interesting character. Kerry born, son of a writer, and appointed to the High Court last year (from the Circuit Court on May 2, just before the General Election). He was also appointed to the board of the Abbey Theatre by fellow Kerryman and Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue. I digress.

Ahern is clearly again trying to delay the tribunal. He has done so for 3 years, and he is continuing to do so. I get the feeling that they are trying to throw as many legal challenges at the tribunal as possible, and hoping that one will stick. The Dail privilege of statements made outside the Dail is nonsensical.

The reference to a Dail speech was highlighted by Irish Election, I especially like this bit from September 2006:

The Taoiseach: I know the law, although I am not an expert on every aspect. However, many years ago my tax advisers checked the issues in detail on the basis that it was a loan with interest. Subject to correction, I believe that the rate throughout the loan period was 3% — the interest rate that a person would have received on a deposit from 1993 or 1994. It was calculated yearly, and the total interest would be more than €20,000. I receive an annual figure from my tax adviser. It was calculated over the entire period on that basis. I paid capital gains tax and gift tax. It is not appropriate for me to spell out what I paid, but I assure the Deputy that I did so following advice.

An annual figure from your tax advisor? Really? Can we see that? Can we discover it? You paid capital gains and gift tax? Really? Can you show us the receipts? Will Revenue agree?

Do we need a ‘green revolution’ to get Ahern out of office?

After a thorough investigation, the Mahon Tribunal has found that Frank Dunlop redacted references to a Fine Gael activist he called “Demetrius”. Who on earth was it?

The Resign, Mr Ahern Facebook group, started back at the start of December, has just passed 1,500 members. It is certainly a milestone, and certainly the biggest Irish-oriented politically oriented group I have come across.

Following requests from members for some form of physical protest against Mr Ahern, I have put a date of Saturday April 12 out there for people to think about. I invited the entire group to attend, of whom 62 have said they will go, 156 may turn up, 348 people won’t turn up, and 1,220 have not yet replied. If 50 people turn up, I will be more than happy, but obviously the more the better.

I have the assistance of another member, in Co Meath, who has offered to help with organising any event that may take place on that day.

One of the things that members have requested is that it be apolitical – that is no hijacking by political parties like the Socialist Workers Party, Fine Gael, or anyone else for that matter.

I agree, any hijacking would lead to a pigeon-holing of the event as party political, when it is in fact the opposite.

While people who are protesting may be, and are likely to be, members of political parties (it is something you can’t get away from), but the group is composed of an interesting cross section of ages and beliefs – so all are welcome.

I don’t expect any protest that occurs to have any real affect, at least not initially. But I do see the point in doing something. For too long Irish people have sat back and complained about low standards in public office. Always giving out but never doing anything about it. Well what better way to spend your Saturday afternoon? Supping lattes, or supporting a cause you always talk about but never act on?

If you are not on Facebook, but are interested in the concept, or have something you want to contribute, drop me a line.

gavin AT gavinsblog DOT com.

The provisional date and time is Saturday April 12, 12 noon, Dublin.

What’s the connection? The Irish Times reports:

It is not clear why Turner, a British national whose mother was from Cork, wants to have an Irish passport. Turner was a director of a number of Irish companies, and took up residence here during the 1990s when he was seeking to promote a hotel, conference centre and casino project in the disused Phoenix Park Racecourse.

The project, promoted by the Sonas Consortium, would have involved very significant investment. The accounts of Ariadler Holdings, which managed the project, show that £2.33 million (€2.96 million) was spent on promoting it in the period from last 1993 to December 1995. However, it foundered when the government refused to issue a casino licence.

The setback did not arrest Turner’s career. In 2005 Midia had plans to float a company called First Croatia Properties (FCP) on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market. However, the flotation was cancelled after the company said a US-based fund had subscribed €83 million, more than FCP was seeking to raise on the markets.

Midia is currently involved in a large biotechnology park project in Croatia.

British Companies Office files show that in 2003 John Patrick Mara, son of the former Fianna Fáil press officer PJ Mara, was appointed a director of Midia Investments Ltd. The other directors of the company were Louise Turner and Steven Turner, understood to be Turner’s daughter and son.

The company was dissolved a few years later, seemingly for failing to lodge accounts. It is not clear that it ever traded.

PJ Mara acted as press officer for the Sonas consortium in the 1993/1995 period, having resigned his position with Fianna Fáil.

We all know who Mara had close connections to, and more recently was still involved in helping Fianna Fail get re-elected. We should also not forget what Judge Flood had to say about Mara.

Second interim report: 10-02

During the course of his employment as a Press Secretary, his financial remuneration was not sufficient to meet his immediate financial requirements, and he experienced financial difficulties. He said he received assistance from his friends, Mr. Oliver Barry and Mr. Dermot Desmond, in the form of loans. There was no formal structure to these loans. There was no interest charge, nor was there any fixed schedule for repayment. Those making the loans did not intend that the sums advanced would be treated as gifts by Mr. Mara, but were content to receive their money back, once Mr. Mara was in a position so to do.

Yea. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? I wonder Ahern got the idea…

In relation to Century Radio, it was alleged by James Stafford:

1. Mr. Oliver Barry had informed him in 1988, prior to the issue of the franchise to Century by the IRTC, that there was a rumour at the time that Mr. Burke and Mr. Mara expected to receive payment of £90,000 for the independent television licence, £75,000 for each of the Dublin radio licences, and £25,000 each for the local radio licences;

2. Mr. Stafford had indicated that Mr. Barry informed him in 1990 that Mr. Mara was seeking a sum of £30,000 from Century; and

3. Mr. Stafford had been requested to pay £30,000 to Mr. Mara by Mr. Dermot Desmond in September 1990.

So the Tribunal did a trawl on Mara’s accounts post 1988. They sought details of all accounts held within or without the State after 1988. Mara responded with a schedule of accounts. But woe was he, he “forgot” to mention the Pullman Limited accounts on the Isle of Man.

Flood didn’t think much of Mara’s story:

10-11 The details of this company available for inspection by the public at the Companies Office would not have revealed any connection between this company and Mr. Mara. However, it was the case that Mr. Mara was the beneficial owner of this company and that his interest was held in trust for him by a trust company called Europlan Trust Company (Isle of Man) Limited (Europlan Trust).

10-12 Europlan Trust transferred funds from the Isle of Man to the account of Mr. Mara and his wife, at Bank of Ireland Private Banking, and it was named as the transferor in the record of this transfer, which appeared in the body of his Bank of Ireland monthly statement of account for the month of March 1994. This statement was included in the documentation which had been provided to the Tribunal, not only by Mr. Mara, but also independently by Bank of Ireland.

10-13 The existence of Mr. Mara’s offshore account in the Isle of Man had not been revealed in either of the affidavits of discovery sworn by him, or in subsequent correspondence. The first acknowledgement by Mr. Mara of the existence of the Pullman account was ultimately made to the Tribunal in the days leading up to the taking of his oral testimony before the Tribunal in July 2001. By way of explanation for his prior non-disclosure of this account, Mr. Mara told the Tribunal that he had forgotten about it, and was reminded of it by the Europlan Trust reference in his Bank of Ireland monthly statement.

10-14 In view of the specific requirement imposed on Mr. Mara by the Order made against him for discovery of documents in connection with offshore accounts, the Tribunal believes that it is unlikely that he could have forgotten about the existence of an account which had been opened by him in the Isle of Man. This is manifestly so given the steps which would have had to be taken to form a company there and to maintain an account in that jurisdiction, given the level of turnover in the account between August 1993 and October 1997 and given the fact that Mr. Mara had used Pullman as a vehicle to bill for services within the jurisdiction as late as September 1997. The Tribunal does not accept Mr. Mara’s explanation for his failure to disclose this account to the Tribunal. In its review of the documentation discovered to the Tribunal by Mr. Mara, the Tribunal did not find any link between Mr. Mara’s financial affairs and any payment to him, which could be attributed to the franchisees of licenses issued for independent broadcasting from 1988 onward.

Ultimately the Tribunal could not reconcile the conflicts in evidence given in relation to these allegations. But it did make a finding concerning Mara’s accounts.

7-13 The Tribunal is satisfied that Mr. P.J. Mara failed to co-operate with the Tribunal by:

(a) Failing to provide the Tribunal with details of an account in the name of Pullman Limited, operated by him at Royal Bank of Scotland in the Isle of Man, when swearing his Affidavit of Discovery made pursuant to an Order of the Tribunal requiring him to discover, inter alia, any such account.

How close were Turner and Mara? What exactly was the nature of the relationship between Turner and Ahern? For what did Turner need an Irish passport? More and more questions…

RTE are leading with this story and it looks like this will set the news agenda for tomorrow. Ahern is due back before the Tribunal on February 21 and 22.

It has been confirmed tonight that Bertie Ahern assisted Manchester businessman Norman Turner in receiving a passport in 1994.

Mr Turner – who donated money to Fianna Fáil – was at the centre of a proposal to build a controversial casino in the Phoenix Park in the same year.

The information has come to light following a series of parliamentary questions by Fine Gael deputy Phil Hogan.

Let me say it again, it is time for Ahern to resign.

Finally guys, the video you have been waiting for. Pee Flynn destroying his political career in one interview. Love it.

Forgive the quality, it is a nine year old VHS recording.

[via]

BBC Radio 4 did a special report on the influx of immigrants to Ireland, and the affect it’s having on the country. Worth a listen.

In an interview with the paper that published stories relating to a leak from the Tribunal, Ahern has this to say:

“I find it all more bemusing than anything else. Mr Gilmartin has made a series of completely bizarre allegations and what he has said has nothing to do with me or my friends helping me out. All of this is a million miles away from Quarryvale. I never got a penny from O’Callaghan and that is well known but the tribunal seem intent on doing a cradle to grave trawl of my finances,” said Mr Ahern.

“If you are asking me is the tribunal a strain, it’s not on me personally but it is hurtful to see my family and friends have their private affairs aired in public solely because they are associated with me. It was frustrating and painful to me and my loved ones to have information sensitive to our family thrown into an election campaign, and also leaked in September 2006.”

The Taoiseach said he had been encouraged by so many people in all walks of life who told him they were disgusted by what had happened. “I am a resilient person and in public life you learn to take the knocks and I’ve also enjoyed great support from my colleagues and the public at large who I think recognise that I was going through a difficult personal time surrounding my separation. I am lucky that I had good friends who helped me out.”

I’ve been reading Tribunal transcripts now for some time. I can’t count the number of times it has been explained to Mr Ahern how the Tribunal examining his accounts related to bribes – one would have thought it is fairly logical. But he still doesn’t seem to get it. So too Willie ‘confirmation money’ O’Dea.

1. Mr Gilmartin’s allegations are not bizarre.
2. What he said has everything to do with you.
3. It is intimately connected with Quarryvale.
4. It is not well known that you never got a penny from O’Callaghan.
5. The tribunal is investigating your finances in the relevant timeframe.
6. You brought your loved ones into it.
7. Padraic O’Connor was not a good friend, nor Barry English.

Actually, strike that. Bertie Ahern is a dumbass.

I’ll let Judge Mahon do the explaining. Again. Oh and Ahern listens, and agrees:

I’ll try and explain it. The evidence the Tribunal has from Mr. Gilmartin is that he was told by Mr. O’Callaghan that sums of 30 and 50,000 pounds had been paid to you. Mr. O’Callaghan denies saying it and he denies aying it and you deny receiving it. But that prompted necessarily the Tribunal to, as it has done in similar instances involving other witnesses, in this and other modules. It necessarily prompted the Tribunal to look at your personal finances. When the Tribunal looked at your personal finances it sees the lodgements that we’re talking about. And that necessitates the inquiry and the level of inquiry that has been conducted since. That is the basis for the probing of your finances.

In relation to the more recent questioning of Mr. O’Neill and the issues surrounding the events in the bank in December of 1993. It has always been a possible scenario, as far as the Tribunal is concerned, that you yourself have told the Tribunal that the — that it was your intention on the 23rd when you instructed Mr. Murphy in the bank to prepare the documentation which would allow you open an account some days later. That your evidence to the Tribunal and the information given by you to the Tribunal always has been that you weren’t then aware that friends were going to club together and give you money some days later. You were completely, you were completely ignorant of that plan which was then being hatched by your friends, so to speak. And that what you were intending to do on the 23rd in relation to the SSA account was to deposit money from your 50,000 odd savings.

And so that’s the evidence as we — that’s — that’s your evidence. We have to probe the possibility, and it’s not a hypothesis, the possibility that you were in fact aware on the 23rd, of the money that was going to be given to you by your friends. And that’s an issue that the Tribunal has to probe and reach a conclusion about ultimately.

In relation to the 14th of December. You have clearly provided very strong evidence indicating that you, as a matter of probability, weren’t in the bank on that day but there is still remains the possibility. And I’m only suggesting it’s a possibility, that on instructions from you or contact from you, which doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to physically attend the bank, Mr. Murphy was preparing documentation on the 14th for you to open an SSA account. And in that, again, you were conscious that you had savings. And if your evidence is correct that you intended initially to open an SSA account with your savings, there’s no — there’s nothing wrong about having reached that decision on the 14th. And conveying in some way other than physically visiting the bank that this is what you wanted to do. So that’s the backdrop as best I can explain it at four o’clock.

Actually, Des O’Neill does a good job too, and Ahern goes along with it:

Q. 2 Mr. Ahern, in this second phase of the inquiry in the Quarryvale II Module, you will be questioned in relation to certain savings and lodgements which were made to your accounts between 1993 and 1995. You are aware of that?

If I might outline the background of your present attendance. It stems from initially contact made with you on the 15th of October 2004, by the Tribunal seeking a narrative statement and discovery of financial records arising in the context of an allegation which had been made by Mr. Tom Gilmartin that he had been informed by a developer, Mr. Owen O’Callaghan, that you had been paid a sum of 50,000 pounds in 1989 and 30,000 pounds at a date some time prior to 1992, in the context of Mr. O’Callaghan’s developments; a matter which you have denied and he, Mr. O’Callaghan, has denied at all times, isn’t that so?

A. Correct.

Q. 3 And as a result of that inquiry made of you, we heard in your last testimony that you responded by providing a narrative statement and a process of discovery of documents was engaged in as between you and your solicitors and the Tribunal and its legal team, isn’t that so?

A. Correct.

Q. 4 And in the course of that it became apparent that you had not operated any bank accounts between the years 1987 and 1993, encompassing the years in respect of which it was alleged that payments had been made to you by Mr. O’Callaghan, isn’t that so?

A. That’s so.

Q. 5 There were, however, documents available from the period at which your normal banking was resumed at the end of 1993. And that documentation was produced to the Tribunal and analysed. And it became apparent in the course of that, that in the first year or so of your banking transactions, the lodgements to your account represented a proportion of approximately three times your net income at the time, isn’t that so?

A. That’s correct.

Q. 6 And I think this led to correspondence passing as between the Tribunal solicitors and you, and the explanation was provided for the difference between the funds lodged and the income earned, explained in a report provided by Mr. Des Peelo, a tax advisor and accountant whom you had engaged for the purpose of advising you in relation to your financial records, is that so?

A. Correct.

Q. 7 And in the body of that report, which was provided to the Tribunal on the 20th of April of 2006, it was indicated that the monies lodged to your accounts comprised, firstly, the cumulative savings which you had maintained from a period commencing in 1987, and running up till 1993, of approximately 50,000 pounds, probably a little more, isn’t that so?

A. Correct.

Q. 8 In addition, there was a receipt of two goodwill loans from two separate groups of your friends, which were made in December 1993 and in October 1994, totalling some 39,000 pounds, isn’t that so?

A. Correct.

Q. 9 And in addition to that, an amount of approximately 8,000 pounds being the equivalent of approximately 8,000 pounds Sterling which had been received as a donation following a Manchester dinner which you had attended in the year 1994, isn’t that so?

A. Correct.

Q. 10 And I think in the first phase of examination of you earlier in September, the focus of examination was in respect of the foreign exchange elements of certain lodgements which were made to your accounts and accounts of Ms. Celia Larkin at the time, isn’t that right?

A. Correct.

Q. 11 And to a limited extent, it may be necessary to cross over on one or other of those lodgements but this particular inquiry at present is focused on the savings and loans aspects of the monies which were received by you, you understand that?

Now, I think that I outlined briefly to you the explanations or rather the individual components of the monies which were lodged to your accounts. And I think it is the case that all of these funds, to one extent or another, were related in the explanation furnished to the marital separation of yourself and your wife in 1987, and/or to the subsequent legal proceedings which gave effect to a legal separation of yourself and your wife in and about December 1993, isn’t that right?

A. Correct.

Q. 12 If we look to the savings of over 50,000 pounds which were made, the explanation for this is given as being that there were bank accounts in existence prior to 1987, which were joint accounts of your wife and yourself and upon your separation in 1987, you did not use those accounts because you were conducting in effect, a separate existence from her at that time, isn’t that so?

A. Correct.

Q. 13 As regards the first of the monies that was taken out by way of loan, this was the AIB bank loan taken out in December of 1993, this is related to the legal expenses or discharge of the legal expenses that followed upon the conclusion of those legal proceedings in November/December of 1993, isn’t that so?

A. Yes.

Q. 14 And in relation to the first of the goodwill loans, that is the sum of 22,500 pounds, that was attributed by its donors as being a gift to meet the legal expenses that they understood you to have incurred in those proceedings that I’ve just mentioned, isn’t that right?

A. Correct.

Q. 15 As regards the Manchester dinner contribution, the contribution was intended to assist you in your financial affairs following upon that separation and those proceedings that I have mentioned, isn’t that right; in relation to the Manchester money?

A. Yes.

Q. 16 And the second payment from friends made in autumn of 1994, was intended to assist you in relation to the acquisition of a dwelling house, stemming from the fact that your previous family home was no longer in your ownership as and from the conclusion of your legal proceedings.

A. Correct.

Q. 17 Isn’t that right? So that it follows from what I have just said that to some extent it will be necessary in the course of today’s examination to touch upon your matrimonial separation and to that extent, I can inform you that these inquiries are being made of you not out of any purient interest but because each one of the financial transactions that I just outlined, is tied back to or connected with your marital separation, you appreciate that?

To that extent, Mr. Ahern, you may take it that I will not be asking you any questions in relation to the cause of your matrimonial separation or to any detail which arises from the court proceedings themselves or anything which took place within the legal proceedings that were conducted in 1993.

What exactly do you not get, Mr Ahern?

I have a workaround for copying Mahon Tribunal transcripts. I will be gradually adding DRM-free transcripts to the Mahon Tribunal wiki. The transcripts will then be locked to prevent changes or vandalism.

If the Tribunal is unhappy with this, my email is in the about section.

UPDATE: TRANSCRIPTS ARE AVAILABLE HERE
UPDATE: TRANSCRIPTS ARE AVAILABLE HERE

Having watched Prime Time’s coverage of Ahern’s performance in the Tribunal yesterday I am somewhat dismayed. It took 14 minutes and three journalists to eventually mention the core reason for both the questioning, and the module itself.

The question is this: Did Bertie Ahern receive a bribe from Owen O’Callaghan, either directly or indirectly?

The whole purpose of the questioning is this one fundamental question. Why do they tiptoe around it, and get bogged down in the web Ahern has weaved?

The Tribunal is solely devoted to this question, and in my opinion, is expertly and ruthlessly pursuing it without fear or favour.

Let’s not forget the ultimate rationale.

In relation to the loan for almost £20k, and the fact that repayments did not start until 1995, Mr Ahern said:

“I… let the loan there until the bank came after me about it.” (Q520)

The money question is Q552. Counsel makes this assertion:

The reason the first di