Tag Archives: Larry Goodman

From top Health Minister Simon Harris; Larry Goodman (left) and Denis O’Brien

Yesterday evening.

In the Dáil.

Rise TD Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Health Simon Harris about the cost of leasing private hospitals during Covid-19.

They had this exchange:

Paul Murphy: “I want to ask the Minister about the cost of the private hospitals. The Taoiseach confirmed to me two weeks ago an estimated cost of €115 million per month for the leasing of the private hospitals.

“I then later asked the Minister for Finance why we are paying more than four times as much per bed as they are in the UK, which he was not able to answer.

“I then wrote to the Minister for Finance, copying to the Minister for Health, seeking the publication of the final agreements with the individual hospitals, a detailed breakdown of the €90.2 million which has been already given to the private hospitals and asking him again to explain the discrepancy between the €44,000 paid per bed in Ireland and the €10,000 paid per bed in Britain.

“I will give one example as to why we need to see these figures. The Beacon Medical Group was bought by Mr Denis O’Brien for €35 million, according to The Irish Times. If they get €44,000 a month for 200 beds, the State will have paid more than €35 million in four months but will not own a bed at the end of that process.

“Can we get the full final agreements? Can we get a breakdown of the costs so that we can see if there is profiteering going on?”

Simon Harris: “I thank Deputy Paul Murphy. I have done everything I can to be transparent in relation to this.

“First, payment will be on a cost only open-book model whereby the hospitals will be reimbursed only for the operating costs properly incurred during the period. The costs that will be covered will be limited to normal costs of operating the hospital.

“Since the rationale for the arrangement relates to the Covid-19 pandemic for which no one can provide a definitive time horizon, it is not possible to indicate a precise cost estimate attaching to the arrangement but the final cost will be verified by an independent firm of accountants appointed by the HSE and the private hospitals. There is also an arbitration mechanism in place in the event of any disagreement.

“Under the heads of terms, private hospitals are funded to 80% of their estimated monthly costs in advance by the HSE.

As the Deputy says, €90.2 million was advanced to the hospitals for April.

“We will independently verify that and claw back if we find any issues as we audit it. This will continue to be examined by a committee of public accounts in due course and will be subject to the normal scrutiny by the Comptroller and Auditor General, and I lay an agreement before this House.

Murphy: “Directors’ pay at Beacon in 2018 was almost €1 million.

“Are we paying the directors’ pay? Are we paying the bloated pay of the CEO on top of that? These companies often officially claim to be making no profit but make intra-group transfers through transfer pricing, interest payments and fees to other companies owned by the same person.

“With that in mind, are we paying for any rents or interests to Mr Denis O’Brien, Mr Larry Goodman or any of their companies?

Specifically, do the payments we are making include rent or interest payments made directly or indirectly to companies owned by Mr Denis O’Brien or Mr Larry Goodman which are registered in Luxembourg in order to avoid paying tax?”

Harris: “I will ask for the HSE or the Department to respond to the Deputy in writing on this matter in the coming days.

“I want to be clear that nobody is meant to be profiteering as a result of this. The whole purpose here is to ensure that nobody can make a profit and we pay solely according to the cost-only open-book model.

“We were in a very lucky position to be able to acquire the use of these facilities. Thank God we have not needed to use their ICU capacities yet. The HSE will respond directly to the Deputy in the coming days.”

Transcript via Oireachtas.ie

Before and after: Proposed changes to Kildare Street Hotel, 47-49 Kildare Street, Dublin 2; letter of objection to the plans by Frank McDonald

Further to the lodgement of a planning application to Dublin City Council – by Ternary Ltd, controlled by the family of businessman Larry Goodman – to demolish a terrace of Georgian houses on Kildare Street, Dublin 2…

Journalist and author Frank McDonald has written to the council (above) setting out his objection to the plan.

Previously: Some Front

Via Frank McDonald

From top: Larry Goodman at Dublin Castle for the Beef Tribunal in 1991; Solidarity–People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe

Yesterday.

During a meeting of the Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach.

Solidarity–People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy asked Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe about a story which appeared in The Irish Times yesterday concerning the Goodman Group established by Larry Goodman,

Journalist Colm Keena reported that nine companies in the group made a profit of €170 million last year and had assets worth more than €3.45 billion – with the “bulk of the profits” booked in Luxembourg and “largely untaxed”.

Mr Goodman was at the centre of the Beef Tribunal in 1991, where it was eventually revealed that, under the then Fianna Fáil government between 1987 and 1989, his companies benefited from financial concessions, special arrangements and a change in the tax law to protect their income.

Mr Murphy and the minster had this exchange yesterday:

Paul Murphy: “In the papers today is the Goodman Group making a profit of €170million last year reportedly and paying, effectively, zero taxes through filing accounts in Luxembourg.

“The double taxation agreement that appears to still be operative with Luxembourg is from 1972 so it was written, it was agreed a couple of years after the one with the Netherlands. Is that an agreement you’re looking at revising or adjusting or think that, certainly from this vantage point, it would seem to be a problem if someone can make, or a corporation can make such amount of profits and be enabled effectively to pay zero tax on it.”

Paschal Donohoe: “So, as I said in relation to another question earlier on [from Labour TD Joan Burton], I’m not going to comment on the tax affairs of any particular company or individual.

“But in answer to your other question, in relation to our DTA [Double Taxation Agreement] between Ireland and Luxembourg, we will be updating that via use of the multi-lateral convention.”

Watch back in full here 

Nine Goodman companies made largely untaxed profit of €170m (Colm Keena, The Irish Times)

Top pic: Eamonn Farrell/Rollingnews

00077189

Larry Goodman

Sir, – I refer to the article by Colm Keena headed “Goodman company owner paid little tax on €52m profit” in The Irish Times of April 24th.

 

The article was misleading and damaging to the group as it did not give a fair reflection of the taxes paid. The group, which is headquartered in Ireland and has successful operating plants in Ireland, UK, Poland, Holland, Denmark, Austria and Spain, pays substantial millions in corporation taxes on the profits earned and is tax compliant in all jurisdictions in which it operates.

 

The article, which concerned part of the financing structure of the overall group, implied a tax rate for the entire group by reference to the rate of tax paid by selective holding/financing companies within the overall structure. For the accounting year ended March 31st, 2014, the effective rate of corporation tax for the entire group was in excess of the Irish corporate tax rate. 

 

Yours, etc,

LJ GOODMAN,

Executive Chairman,

ABP Food Group,

Ardee,

Co Louth.

Meanwhile….

“The Revenue Commissioners are reviewing the international corporate structures used by Larry Goodman’s ABP Food Group and other businesses, in the light of details made public last month.”

“The move comes in the wake of reports in this newspaper about a group of companies based in Luxembourg, the accounts of which show massive inter-group loans and dividend payments that are only lightly taxed. A company called Parlesse Investments Sarl has booked profits of approximately €280 million between 2010 and March 2013, and paid tax of approximately €800,000…Mr Goodman is a former director of the company.”

Hmm.

Context: Goodman company owner paid little tax on €52m profit (Colm Keena, Irish Times, April 24, 2015) 

Revenue to review Goodman group structure (Colm Keena, Irish Times, May 8, 2015)

Related: Goodman empire is built on good tax planning, privacy and international trade (Colm Keena, Irish Times, May 8, 2015)

Screen Shot 2013-03-05 at 07.59.54Simon Coveney (centre right) at the opening of the APB foods China office in Bejing last April with Paul Finnerty, chief executive of APB Foods (right).

Paul Finnerty, the chief executive of [Larry] Goodman’s ABP food group, will [today] give evidence to MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs committee – inquiring into the horsemeat scandal – after it emerged that the company supplied Tesco with beefburgers that turned out to be 29% horse.

An ABP factory in Tipperary supplied the meat that was made into fresh beef bolognese sauce for Asda that the supermarket found to contain 5% horse. ABP’s Scottish factory also supplied beef meatballs to Waitrose that the retailer found had up to 30% undeclared pork.

…Today’s Irish government is also facing criticism that it was too slow to inform others and had remained close to its beef industry.

Britain’s environment secretary, Owen Paterson, has said his current Irish counterpart, Simon Coveney, only told the UK of the problem in January, rather than when it first became aware of it in November. Coveney’s brother Patrick is chief executive of Greencore, an Irish food processor that made the Asda bolognese sauce found to contain 5% horse. Greencore, however, says its own tests on the same beef batch came up negative for horse DNA.

Horsemeat Scandal: Chief Of Irish Beef Company To Face MPs (Felicity Lawrence, Guardian)

(APB Foods)

 

Taoiseach Brian Cowen and the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith on Sunday announced €69 million in grants to support capital investment in 15 projects in the Irish beef and lamb processing sector….which was timed to woo farming votes in advance of the European and local elections on June 5th.

The successful applications for public funding include three Larry Goodman-owned AIBP facilities at Cahir, Co Tipperary; Clones, Co Monaghan; and in Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
…Brian Cowen denied the announcement had anything to do with the elections’ campaigns.

“The cynics are those in the Opposition who seem to be so addicted to being part of the bad news brigade that they won’t allow us to put out any good news at all,” he said.

 

€69 million.

Meat Industry Welcomes Cowen’s Pre-election Announcement Of €69 million In Grants For Irish beef and Lamb Processing Sectors (Finfacts.ie May 25, 2009)

 


“The evidence tells us that our frozen burger supplier, Silvercrest, used meat in our products that did not come from the list of approved suppliers we gave them.

Nor was the meat from the UK or Ireland, despite our instruction that only beef from the UK and Ireland should be used in our frozen beef burgers.

Consequently we have decided not to take products from that supplier in future.

We took that decision with regret but the breach of trust is simply too great.”

Tim Smith, Tesco Group Technical Director.

Over to you, Mr Goodman.

Tesco: Burger Supplier Used Meat Not From Approved suppliers (ITV)

“You want lies with that?”

Enda Kenny and Larry Goodman at the SIAL Foodfair in Paris last October.

They’re calling him Dirty Larry.

Go ahead, make his neigh.

Bentley-driving Mr Goodman, an intensely private man, started out as a 15-year-old school drop-out selling sheep guts to butchers in Dundalk, Ireland for use as sausage skin.

 

Good times.

Revealed: Dirty Larry, The Multi-Millionaire Behind Firm Sneaking Horsemeat Into Your Supermarket (Mail Online)

Pic via Conor Ryan (irish Examiner)