74 thoughts on “It Wasn’t Me

  1. Soundings

    “Employee numbers and revenues have doubled” at Siteserv since [REDACTED] bought it.

    True, that contract from his buddy, Phil Hogan, to install water meters has been very lucrative.

    According to the Moriarty Tribunal, [REDACTED] has form in shady dealings when it comes to the Irish state, represented by FG ministers, selling assets to [REDACTED]

    1. McKay

      Nothing to see here now. Move along. Go back to your homes and places of business. Bloody gobshites.

  2. phil

    Ohhh I see what he did there, I just expressed an interest in the purchase, if my subjects got a little excited and possibly strayed outside good practice in order to please me , well then I can understand the current confusion , I dont actually give them directions, they know what I like and want … but the jobs jobs jobs…

  3. ahjayzis

    Is it an automatic thing that Denis O’Brien gets filtered to [REDACTED]?

    I love it, It’s like his Broadsheet pen name!

    1. Joe the Lion

      If it was automatic then [REDACTED] would get filtered to Denis O’Brien?

      Personally I think it is Soundings little joke. Oh what a rum card that Soundings is wha!

  4. Steve

    I know the opposition are trying to make something of this coz they realise the economy is gonna help the gov return to power and thy have sweet f@&k all else. Anyway 90% of the electorate haven’t got a notion of this ibrc siteserve matter so it ain’t gonna affect polling.

    @bodger/ admin what’s the problem here anyway.How is the government/DoF at fault for raising concerns/asking IBRC questions on the sale of Anglo assets. DoF not asking questions during the noughties is one of the reasons why we are where we are in the first place.

    DoF should be commended. And the opposition trying to turn this something to beat the government up with is laughable.

    1. JimmytheHead

      lol “the opposition” – you sound very suspicious indeed. Good luck sticking up for the dept of financial parasites, im sure that will be beneficial to your already robust credit rating.

    2. Odis

      “And the opposition trying to turn this something to beat the government up with is laughable” – so why aren’t I laughing?

      1. Steve

        I get the whole anti Denis o Brien thing. Go for it…don’t really care. It’s obvious that some broadsheet contributors didn’t get offered a full-Time job in the Indo after doing a iobbridge there and wanna take it out on the owner :) Fire ahead.

        My point was Mary lou , Martin, et al shouting yday in the dail that the government needed to answer for the actions of ibrc, is a bit stupid. This issue at hand is whether the sale was good for the taxpayer. Either way, I don’t see how government can be blamed for the actions of ibrc.

        One last thing about DOB , I don’t know the man, and I don’t care to defend him or slag him. But I do find I funny that some of the people harassing meter installers with posters of DOB were probably delighted with him when he forked up some money to bring MON/keano into Ireland management or Jonny sexton back to Leinster.

        You could stick that in a morrissete song about irony.

        1. Drogg

          Of course the government had nothing to do with the ibrc deal, its not like former head of FG Alan Dukes was the head of ibrc at the time or that the government wasn’t informed of a write down of over 100 million for someone who already owed the banks vast fortunes or that the deal was done with for siteserv on the basis that it was already being promised the water contract by another FG minister even though they had no experience in that area and was a more expensive tender that has already gone over their budget. But you believe what you want about [REDACTED].

          1. Steve

            But Alan dukes was appointed by Brian lenihan, a FF minister, in December 2008 to the board of Anglo…..2.5 years before FG got into power. Should have he being fired in 2011 after the election just coz he’s an ex FG leader??

            Is the government to blame for ibrc not telling it about the writedown( if that is true)??

            I’ll stick to my original point from above, I’m not saying this deal was or was done in the best interests of the taxpayer but you can’t blame the government for the actions of ibrc.

          2. JimmytheHead

            Steve either youre purposely omitting huge facts or youre actually suffering from some sort of dementia. It really doesnt matter which badge they are wearing, politicians in power atm are using their authority to steal millions if not billions from hard working tax payers. This is the last message im replying to as you are full of sh*t. Take care now

          3. Steve

            Jaysis ye really went for it there. Full scale tin hat. My advice jimmy would be to take this anger about politicians into the polling booth next year.

          4. Drogg

            Actually Steve he should have been fired as it was a conflict of interest him being in that position while FG are in government and yes the government is supposed to be informed of any deals over 100 million involving ibrc but you are the business head you should know this. And finally the deal was not in the best interest of the taxpayer we gave a business man in massive debt a cheap sale of a massive company for less then others where offering the gave him a huge contract for meter installation for more money then anyone else was asking, so how is this good for the taxpayer?

          5. Steve

            As I say below drogg you might be fully right about deal. But would hate to jump to conclusions before report is published end of summer. Anyway government can’t win. If kpmg does find wrong doings then it should bring government down and prosecutions for ibrc. If kpmg find nothing wrong media will be reporting a stitch up.

          6. Lilly

            Steve, unless you’re a complete idiot you’ll know in advance that the report is not an independent one and therefore not worth the paper it will be written on. Would you also have appointed Graham Dwyer judge in his own trial?

        2. Fergus the magic postman

          I hear you. The Government don’t have to answer to anybody on this because they’re great. The DoF is great. Denis O’ Brien provides funds to FAI & so should so shouldn’t be held accountable for anything either.

          Bit of a change in the weather today. A little bit shillier than yesterday.

          1. Siju Cat

            Bit of a change in the weather today. A little bit shillier than yesterday.

            Hats off sir – beautiful turn of phrase.

        3. Joe the Lion

          No you couldn’t. It’s nothing at all at all like getting a free ride (when you’ve already paid).
          Who would have thought? (It figures).

          FYI
          The lyrics present several situations which are said to be “ironic”, which has led to debates about whether any of them fit the accepted meaning of irony.

          Comedian Ed Byrne performed a skit in which he jokingly attacked the song for its lack of ironies: “The only ironic thing about that song is it’s called ‘Ironic’ and it’s written by a woman who doesn’t know what irony is. That’s quite ironic.”

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironic_(song)

        4. Continuity Jay-Z

          No Steve. People saw right through the Rugby and soccer strokes. Give the citizenry some credit.

      1. Steve

        I love all these seemingly witty one liner retorts that intend to convey a higher level of understanding / sense of comedy when actually you can’t actually respond with reasoned / fact based debate.

        1. JimmytheHead

          Actually actually actually… Jesus steve we might have to get your team leader involved if your grammar gets any worse, just stick to the approved sheet of messages you can post ok?

        2. Joe the Lion

          Get your understanding of song meanings right first buddy – then we can talk, ok?
          Focus on the important stuff.

    3. Atticus

      What’s wrong?

      How about paying €5 million to the shareholders of a company that owed the Irish State €100 million for starters?

    1. Sam

      Now, now, it’s not for the likes of us to set the terms of the inquiries. I’m sure they’ll be set in such a way as to get to the full and unvarnished truth and hold people accountable in the fine tradition of previous such inquiries.

          1. Drogg

            Kids if your in collage nows the time to change to law you will be just in time to make a 100 million on the new tribunal.

    2. ahjayzis

      You’d be hard pressed to find a business that couldn’t turn it’s poo around after being gifted a free 100 million euro.

      1. Steve

        Methinks you fail to understand finance. It’s good to debate these things but better to debate them with facts.

        Sitererv owed around 150m to ibrc but was bought for around 45 thereby leaving the taxpayer at a loss off 100m. 100m was not handed over by ibrc to Denis o briens company

        1. Clampers Outside!

          No, Ahjaysiz is on about the worth of the IW contract….. which to some onlookers was handed to Dinish…. and to be fair, until all that redacted crap is gone, there’s nothing to say that that is the wrong view, no one knows…. that’s why there be an investigation Ted.

        2. Disgruntled Goat

          And where do you think that debt came from? That money was lent to SiteServ to purchase assets which at some point must have been worth close to or in excess of the that amount. You know the assets that Millington got for a fraction of that price thanks to a gift from the taxpayers. The logic is not strong with this one…

          1. Steve

            But assets increase and decrease in value over time?? They were once worth 150m and then they were worth 45m. Purchasing assets from the State at a value less than original purchase price is not the taxpayer gifting DOB 100m. It’s just capitalism…crap…I know.

  5. mauriac

    how could FG be so stupid to let this happen again and again…what does voldemort have on them ?

  6. TheDude

    How about we have a little look-see at the water meter tender process while we are at it?

  7. Tá Frilly Keane

    Is he getting set to stitch up some Fine Girl Ya Are has-beens?

    Like the lads that’ll be of no use ta’im after the General……..

  8. brytothey

    I thought the Walter Hobbs interview on Prime Time last night was the most concise account of what happened so far. It was a complicated sale, but he answered everything in a lot of detail. Had Catherine Murphy totally flustered afterwards.

    1. Unreconstructed

      Not true. What he didn’t explain was why they needed to sell Siteserv in such a hurry. Why the speed? At the time IBRC was expected to be in place until 2020 (iirc). Why were “terms and conditions” such a big deal as regards the other bidders? IBRC had a mandate to get the best price for distressed assets, not sell them in the easiest way possible, at speed.
      It is easy to be taken in by spin spoken in a confident manner…

      1. brytothey

        According to your man:

        a) Siteserv was going down the tubes, hence the need for speed. Plus the French company wanted an extra 8 weeks, so if they pulled their bid at the last minute, they’d also have lost the O’Brian bid. Impossible to know if that is true until it is examined in detail of course.

        b) The terms and conditions and complexity of the other bids meant that the simple 45 million bid was actually the best and worth the most and the easiest to implement etc etc. Impossible to know if that is true until someone examines and defends the other bids of course.

        “It is easy to be taken in by spin spoken in a confident manner…”
        Yeah, I’m not taking his word for it. But I’m not discounting the possibility that maybe, just maybe, he might be telling the truth either.

        I said it was the most concise account of what happened so far, which it is.

        Of course, there’s more questions. If the interview was an extra hour we might of got them. I think we’re all going to be bored to tears of the detail that’ll come out of this of the next few months.

  9. Unreconstructed

    He also bought a mobile phone license if I remember correctly, paying all the right people.

  10. Drogg

    Whats with all the [REDACTED] fanboys on here [REDACTED] themselves over another obviously [REDACTED] deal with [REDACTED]. I am really trying hard not to go full Godwins law on [REDACTED] comments this morn. Maybe we should be glad we have a billionaire tax [REDACTED] who also controls a far to high percentage of our media and has obvious ties to [REDACTED] that have benefited [REDACTED] ridiculously. Sure why would we want a fair and just society when these suit and tie wearing subservients can make a few coppers off whatever [REDACTED] deal that [REDACTED] is making.

  11. Atticus

    Was funny listening to Vincent Browne talking about this last night. He was trying his very best not to get himself trouble by offending his glorious leader.

  12. Freia

    “We need to come out schwinging in the morning, lads … Steve! Get off that X-box and start reading your script!”, a businessman, yesterday.

  13. Truth in the News

    The rot festered on from Anglo Irish into IBRC, who put Dukes in charge
    then the write off 100 million from a company that ends up in hands of Dennis
    O’Brien, that then gets the contract for installing water meters by a State owned
    company, there is something rotten at the center of this Government, incidently
    why was 5 million given to the previous owners of Siteserve to walk away with. There have been 10’s of thousands already on the streets about the Water
    Tax, there will be 100 of thousands if not a million.
    Rise up, you have nothing to loose but your Blueshirt….Hairshirt.

  14. Lilly

    The Government seem to have one default response when called to account. They attempt to take the heat off by commissioning (or promising) a report, buy some time, fob the electorate off after some time has passed with said ‘report’ compiled by their cronies and keep bleating about economic recovery. It gets old.

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