Tag Archives: Mick Wallace

Mick Wallace writes:

Whatever the Ireland South recount brings, I’m a bit shocked to have polled 80,000+ first preference votes without using a single plastic corriboard poster. Thank you to those who voted for me and gave me a preference. Who knows, maybe plastic-creating political parties will take note.

In fairness.

Tonight

Earlier…

Escalating.

Earlier…

Tonight.

Earlier…

This evening.

via Olivia Kelleher:

Independent TD Mick Wallace chatting to a family member of Green Party Senator Grace O’Sullivan in Nemo Rangers Cork. Ireland South count continues…

Meanwhile…

Earlier…

This evening.

Earlier…

This afternoon.

Earlier…

This afternoon.

Count 17 in Ireland South.

Earlier….

This morning.

Count 15 in Ireland South.

Meanwhile, In Midlands North West…

Five battle for three seats in Midlands-North-West (RTÉ)

Previously: Before You Vote

MEP candidates for Ireland South, RTÉ’s Miriam O’Callaghan and Independents 4 Change TD Mick Wallace on Prime Time debate last night

Last night.

RTÉ One’s Prime Time broadcast the first of its three European election debates.

Last night’s concerned the Ireland South constituency with nine of the 23 candidates taking part – including Wexford Independents 4 Change TD Mick Wallace.

During the debate, journalist Miriam O’Callaghan had the following exchange with Mr Wallace about his financial affairs.

Miriam O’Callaghan: “Mick Wallace, you portray yourself always as very much a man of the people.

“But, in fact, you’ve had tens of millions of euro debts wiped out. You’ve been fined for not paying your construction workers pension contributions on time.

“You knowingly made false declarations on VAT. I mean, are you the sort of person that the voters of Ireland South should send to Europe to represent them?”

Mick Wallace: “Well first of all. Your presentation of the pension thing is a bit inaccurate.”

O’Callaghan: “How?”

Wallace: “Well. There was a dispute with the pension board at the time. We paid all our pensions, every bit of it. And we actually paid more…”

O’Callaghan: “You were fined, I think, €7,000…”

Wallace: “We were fined because we had a row with the pension board because they made us pay for six workers that went back to Eastern Europe six months earlier and they thought we should pay for them after we had released them from their work.

“And that was the only reason that we were in the court despite the fact that the media presented it very differently.”

O’Callaghan: “OK, but the general point, I’m making in terms, I suppose, about tens of millions of euro being wiped out and the VAT issue.”

Wallace: “Well, first of all, with regard to the VAT issue, which has happened over ten years ago, and I’d say it’s probably the most discussed VAT issue in the history of the planet but we owed €1.4million in VAT, we didn’t get it because the money for the sale of the apartments went to the solicitor, who was obliged to give it to the bank.

“And normally the bank will give it to you to give to the Revenue. They wouldn’t give it to us because all the apartments weren’t sold.

“We actually never got it into our hands to give it to the Revenue.

“On the other issue, you’re talking about tens of millions being wiped out, right?”

O’Callaghan: “But did you knowingly make a false declaration on VAT?”

Wallace: “Yes, we did, yeah. And listen, and my biggest crime at the time was being straight about it, right, because we wanted to try, we were employing, at one stage, over 200 people.

“We wanted to keep the business going. And the idea that one would not pay their full VAT, on a particular date and pay it later, is not unusual in business.”

O’Callaghan: “OK, what about Cerberus? I mean you spent a lot of time giving out about it in the Dáil. But you rarely have ever said, and in fact you owe them millions.”

Wallace: “Who? Cerberus?”

O’Callaghan: “Yeah.”

Wallace: “I don’t owe Cerberus anything.”

Silence.

O’Callaghan: “Didn’t…I thought they made you bankrupt?”

Wallace: “They did yeah but I don’t owe them anything. I don’t owe Cerberus anything. Cerberus, listen, let me be clear. Let me clarify it right.

“I was dealing with four banks – three of which were foreign, right? So I didn’t go into Nama. And when you talk about tens of millions of debt right…”

O’Callaghan: “But Mick you know, they made you bankrupt on the basis that you owed them two million.”

Wallace: “Two million? I didn’t even owe it to them. Right. There was a security of €2million put on a building in Inchicore which had absolutely nothing to do with them. They actually went into court and told three lies on an affidavit and unfortunately the judge was obliged to believe them.”

O’Callaghan: “OK but I suppose Mick we can’t be saying that people told lies. They’re not here…”

Wallace: “I can say, I can say it very clearly. And the only reason that Cerberus bankrupted me was because of the fact that I exposed the fact that they paid a €15million bribe to get Project Eagle.”

O’Callaghan: “But I suppose it was [former Fine Gael Finance Minister] Michael Noonan’s point that maybe you had a feud with them but that you didn’t enough come clean on admitting your relationship with them. It’s about transparency.”

Wallace: “I had no relations with Cerberus. And when Cerberus, when I raised the issue about Cerberus, right? Cerberus had nothing to do with my business. They bought one property from Ulster Bank which happened, I had, believe it or not, I had 39 properties with Ulster Bank and Ulster Bank asked me to work with them to sell them and one fell through the net and they didn’t sell it.

“And they threw it into Promontoria Ireland which Cerberus bought. That has nothing, that was after…”

O’Callaghan: “I suppose it was a simple point Michael Noonan, former minister for finance made, which was that maybe you should have declared your interest in relation to Cerberus…”

Wallace: “I didn’t have an interest with them then. Cerberus didn’t come on the scene until later.”

Silence.

Wallace: “That’s totally disingenuous.”

O’Callaghan: “Well then the minister is wrong?”

Wallace: “A hundred per cent. And that wasn’t the only thing he was wrong on.”

Watch back in full here

Ireland South candidates take part in TV debate (RTE)

Previously: Project Eagle And The €3.5 Billion Haircut (Broadsheet, July 2, 2015)

‘I Can’t For The Life Of Me Understand Why No One Gives A Bollox’ (Broadsheet, November 7, 2018)

Related: Mick Wallace’s bankruptcy latest chapter in Cerberus feud (The Irish Times, December 2016)

Noonan challenges Mick Wallace to ‘declare interest’ on Cerberus (The Irish Times, February 28, 2017)

UPDATE:

This afternoon.

Further to confirmation this morning that Independents 4 Change TDs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace will run for seats in the Dublin and Ireland South constituencies respectively, during the European elections on May 24…

Clare and Mick have published their respective campaign videos above…

Meanwhile, The Irish Times has published the full list of candidates here.

Gemma O’Doherty has confirmed that she is running in the four-seat Dublin constituency.

Maynooth University lecturer Adrian Kavanagh, who blogs about elections in Ireland, also has an overview here

Total of 59 candidates declare for European Parliament elections (Fiach Kelly, The Irish Times)

2019 European Election candidates: An Overview (Adrian Kavanagh)

Earlier: “We’ll Work Our Nuts Off”

Independents 4 Change TDs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly on their way to the Disclosures Tribunal last summer

This morning.

Miriam Lord, in The Irish Times, reports that Independents 4 Change TD Mick Wallace and Clare Daly will contest the European elections in May – with Mick seeking a seat in Ireland South and Clare seeking a seat in Dublin.

Ms Lord reports:

“The pair will had in their nomination papers – Ms Daly in Dublin and Mr Wallace in Cork – before today’s midday deadline, ending months of speculation in Leinster House that they were going to enter the election race.

“…Mr Wallace promised: ‘We’ll work our nuts off if we get elected’.”

Clare Daly and Mick Wallace to contest European elections (Miriam Lord, The Irish Times)

Rollingnews

Independents 4 Change TD Clare Daly tweetz:

Fake News is alive & well about #Venezuela. Don’t believe the lies. Come to the public meeting on Thursday 7.30 Pearse Centre…

Meanwhile…


Independents 4 Change TD Mick Wallace in the Dáil earlier this afternoon (top) and later this evening (above)

This afternoon in the Dáil.

Independents 4 Change TD Mick Wallace, among other TDs, raised the financial constraints besetting the Irish Deaf Society – after a quick changing of clothes.

The IDS – which provides services to 50,000 people across Ireland and held an emergency meeting last Saturday – is afraid it will have to close services, and possibly the organisation, due to lack of funding.

Mr Wallace said the IDS is seeking €150,000 so it won’t have to close in March.

The fears of closure come just a year after Irish Sign Language became an official language of the State.

During his contribution, Mr Wallace said:

“Ceann Comhairle, I noticed that you like my unusual shirt and I can tell you that I…I was asked to wear it in solidarity with the people of Malawi by the Irish ambassador to Malawi Gerry Cunningham.

“And I’m wearing it today in solidarity with the people of Malawi but also in solidarity with people, the most special group, the Irish Deaf Society. Please, minister, get the Government to do the right thing.”

Announcement – Update on IDS at risk of closure (Irish Deaf Society)

Independent Wexford TD Mick Wallace reads a statement from the sister of  Kenneth Rowe (top left), a beloved resident of Bridgetown, County Wexford, who took his own life last January.

Via The Wexford People, January 16, 2018:

‘In a eulogy, Kenneth’s father Peter said his son grew from a dearly loved baby into a loving, mischievous, free-spirited young man, full of life and love was always determined to overcome any obstacle in his way.

‘As a child he was obsessed with tractors and machinery and very often up to no good. As young adult he got through some difficult times with the love and support of close friends and family,’ said Peter.

His early twenties were years of amazing adventures. He travelled near and far – Mexico, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Algeria, Morocco, New Zealand and many other countries.

His favourite form of transport was a motorbike and when he visited other countries his loved to head off into the countryside and see how ordinary people lived.

‘He always wanted to meet real people. When he finished his travels, he went about getting every other vehicle license he could, from motorbike to artic.

‘And then he bought his first horse ‘Manny’ and that was the beginning of a whole new phase in his life with Eddie, Queenie and Millie joining the scene. In the middle of all this he worked as a rigger, a lorry driver amongst other things.

‘Between the horses and dogs he found lots of time to hang out with friends, neighbours and anyone who would stop and talk to him. If you said hello to Kenneth you could end up talking to him two hours or two days later.’

Kenneth (32) Kind, Thoughful And Respectful (Wexford People via Press Reader)

From top: Independents 4 Change TD Mick Wallace; Minister for Education Joe McHugh

This afternoon.

In the Dáil.

As Minister for Education Joe McHugh and TDs made statements on the structural issues at Western Building Systems-built schools

Independents 4 Change TD Mick Wallace said:

How in God’s name did one company get so much State work? I’d love to know that. What kind of connections do they have to get so much work? I’d like to know that.

“…It’s so blatantly obvious that there are so many problems around how youse are doing things. I can’t for the life of me understand why no one gives a bollox like, I mean, why doesn’t somebody want to change it? Why doesn’t somebody want to address the inherent problems – the problems that have been there for years – because they can be fixed, you can do things different.

“…A guy in my office pulled out an article this morning, from October 2015. It says Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan confirmed she’s currently arranging safety checks on some facilities built by Western Building Systems which has constructed 26 schools for the State since 2008 after chronic problems were exposed.

“And in 2014 and 2015, the same company got more schools with the same Government. Why in God..Why would you give more work to a company that had proved itself to be doing poor work. Why would you do that? Can you answer that?

“Why does a company who has proved themselves not to be good get more work? I don’t understand that. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Here is a list of the 42 schools completed by Western Building Systems between 2003 and 2018 – 14 of which were built from 2015 on.

Related: Parents to picket Dublin school over structural issues (RTE)

Watch back in full here