Category Archives: Politics

from the Dail to the White House and back via Downing Street and elsewhere.

RTE 1’s Inside Nationwide on Monday traced Irish Nationwide’s meteoric rise in profits from IR£12,000 in 1975 to €391million in 2007.

Richard Curran (above) and Tom Lyons (2nd pic) reported how Ernst and Young and solicitors McCann Fitzgerald were hired to carry out an investigation into the building society, following Michael Fingleton’s resignation in April 2009.

Mr Lyons and Mr Curran reported how the information contained in the subsequent report is so sensitive, successive governments have refused to publish it.

The report catalogues dire lending practices, disastrous risk management records and a virtually non-existent practice of keeping a coherent trail of documentation or records. And Mr Fingleton didn’t use a computer.

The documentary also briefly mentioned how Mr Fingleton courted the Press in the mid-1970s, with Paul Drury, from the Irish Daily Mail, recounting how he first met Fingers at one of his Christmas parties.

Later, Mr Curran says:

“Back then Michael Fingleton often made himself available to journalists. They came to his parties. He was available for quotes and comment. And, on top of that, he was happy to advance them money to buy their first homes. Irish Nationwide began building a profitable business providing savings accounts and mortgages and Michael Fingleton became the go-to man of the financial industry. His journalist contacts knew they could give him a call when doing a piece on banking.”

 

The documentary also heard from Olivia Greene, who was employed at INBS, but didn’t  mention that Ms Greene told a  2011 employment tribunal that, when it came to lending, there were certain criteria for the general public and a different set of criteria for people in certain social circles – including members of the government, media and close friends.

So why didn’t the documentary examine the role of a mortgaged-up media in Irish Nationwide’s rise?

 

“The agreement significantly cuts the Irish sovereign’s funding requirement. The government estimates it will have to borrow less than €1bn a year to service the interest on the new government bonds, compared with payments of over €3bn annually on the promissory notes. It also simplifies the complex and opaque arrangements including ELA loans parallel with the promissory notes that have been in place since the financial crisis.”

 

“The Irish government estimates the interest saved on the new government bonds compared with the promissory notes to be worth about €1.1bn in 2013, €0.9bn in 2014, and €0.7bn in 2015. In 2013, the savings are cancelled out by the estimated costs of liquidating IBRC, but in both 2014 and 2015, the result should be to lower the government’s budget deficit by 0.6% of GDP.”

 

Which is all a bit ritch.

Fitch Says Ireland Deal Eases Fiscal Pressure, Improves Transparency (Reuters)

Clare Daly interviewed by David McCullagh On RTE earlier.

It was sobering.

Clare Daly: “The results taken prove conclusively that I was significantly below the legal alcohol limit. As I said, I had a meeting had a house, I had taken a hot whiskey for a cold and the results of that test will show I was no way near the legal limit.”

David McCullagh: “You must be delighted.”

Daly: “No, in many ways I think the whole incident has saddened me greatly. The release of that information was a deliberate attempt, in my opinion, by sections of An Garda Síochána to discredit me because of a campaign that we’ve been working on to highlight corruption amongst elements of senior gardaí in relation to writing off of penalty points. This is an incredibly serious matter. It’s one which the Garda Ombudsman is now investigating as part of a criminal investigation and we await the outcome of that.”

McCullagh: “They’re investigating the leaked information about you?”

Daly: “That’s right. We made a complaint to the Garda Ombudsman. It’s almost unprecedented that within almost 12 hours of my arrest, the tabloid newspapers had the story, had details which could have only come from garda sources. This is actually a criminal matter for the gardai to engage in such behaviour. And I want it investigated to the full.”

McCullagh: “In fairness to the tabloid media, it wasn’t the tabloid media that first put the story to you, it was actually RTE.”

Daly: “It was but we have information that shows quite clearly that it was tabloid newspapers that had the story first. And in fairness many newspapers took great pleasure in displaying the story in a prominent position. Drink driving is an incredibly serious offence, which I think everybody would agree with and to have any implication that you might be engaged in that type of behaviour is incredibly damaging and I think it was portrayed as such and leaked as such in order to do me damage and I’m delighted that I’m able to show that I wasn’t guilty of anything and I hope now that they’ll act as prominently in putting the story out there now.”

McCullagh: “I suppose some people might say you’re in favour of whistle blowing. This was an instance of whistle blowing about someone in a public position who had, at least, an accusation made against them?”

Daly: “With no case to answer. I think every Irish citizen would believe in innocent until proven guilty. I think Irish people treat very highly our right to a good name and I think that’s valid for every citizen. In some ways you could argue that for public figures, it’s even more important. I think the release of this information wasn’t done with any idea of public good. I was stopped for taking a wrong turn. That’s what I was stopped for.”

Update: RTE has removed a portion of this interview from their playback on legal advice. We have done the same until we can get our  ‘solicitor’ out of Doheny and Nesbitt’s own legal advice.

Previously: “Come Back When You’re Sober”

Pics: RTÉ

 

 

Stephen Donnelly outside the Dail last night

“Speaking to East Coast FM’s morning show, deputy Donnelly [Independent TD/regular person] said this has left the Irish People totally responsible for a debt that was never theirs. Under the terms Ireland has swapped our promissory notes for for a long-term Government bond. This means we will no longer pay 3.1 billion a year in instalments, instead we will make the first payment on the bond in the year 2038, with the final payment in 2053.”

Right so.

Via East Coast FM

The Standards Commission Inquiry Officer confirms its intention to investigate complaints made against Tipperary TD Michael Lowry over his failure to declare his co-ownership (with Liam Carroll) of a 25-acre piece of land outside Wigan.

The Moriarty Tribunal discovered money given to a property agent to find the site was part of a “settlement reached” between Lowry and Denis O’Brien.

Previously: Michael Lowry’s “Worthless Land”

Via Elaine Byrne