Trump slaps valuation of up to $50m on Doonbeg resort he ‘couldn’t care less about’

Donald Trump values his Doonbeg golf resort in Clare at between $25 million and $50 million (€22.8 million to €45.7 million) in a new financial disclosure report. As a declared candidate for the US presidency in 2024, Trump had to give the United States Office of Government Ethics an account of his assets, along with those of wife Melania. Set out over 101 pages, they include Mar-a-Lago, his mansion in Florida, and Turnberry golf course in Scotland, valued at more than $50 million.

In 2020, when Trump last made a declaration, he also valued the Doonbeg resort at $25-50 million and reported that it generated income of $13.47 million. That’s now said to be “over $5 million”.

Accounts for TIGL Ireland Enterprises Ltd show that Doonbeg took a hit from Covid, with an operating profit of €509,892 for 2021 following an operating loss of €1.98 million the year before. Revenues in 2021 were up €3.4 million to €7.17 million.

Not that Trump cares, you understand. He had to resign as a director of TIGL in 2017 upon becoming US president, and declared that he “couldn’t care less” about the resort after campaigners used “environmental tricks” to stop a “massive, beautiful expansion”.

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To put the Doonbeg revenue in context, Trump’s financial report shows he also made “over $5 million” from speaking engagements.

Time to split betting duty beyond the track?

The betting duty – a 2 per cent levy on every wager placed with a bookmaker in Ireland – raised more than €100 million last year, according to provisional figures given to me by the Revenue Commissioners. This is the most ever raised in one year: the figure was €95 million in 2019, and slipped to €86 million and €89 million in the Covid years of 2020 and 2021.

Not much use to the exchequer, however, since all the proceeds go to the dogs and the horses. The money is split 80/20 between Horseracing Ireland and Bord na gCon. In a recent interview with The Irish Times, outgoing FAI chairman Roy Barrett described the betting levy as “absolutely anarchic and wrong”, and said the Government should “stop prevaricating and change it”. Why should racing get all the benefits of the levy, he argued, when 40 per cent of bets are on football?

The former MD of Goodbody Stockbrokers added: “At some point, somebody has to say stop – let’s get our priorities right here.” Maybe reaching the symbolic threshold of €100 million is that point.

What now for David McRedmond?

Still making the case for David McRedmond to be director general of RTÉ last weekend was Lucy Gaffney, chairwoman of Communicorp when the radio group was controlled by tycoon Denis O’Brien. “What an almighty miss” by RTÉ, Gaffney tweeted. “I’m sure all candidates considered are excellent, but McRedmond is unique in his experience of transforming media. Isn’t that what’s needed?” Soon afterwards, McRedmond announced he was no longer interested in the job.

[ Who would want to be director general of RTÉ now? ]

When his own seven-year term as chief executive of An Post comes to an end in October, the speculation is that McRedmond will be offered a contract extension. Yet an updated Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies issued by the Department of Public Expenditure in 2016, the year McRedmond was appointed, says the contract of a CEO of a commercial state body should be normally limited to a single period of five to seven years. “This contract will not be renewable,” it adds bluntly.

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Chopped founder’s fraud warning

There’s a problem in Irish business that is usually kept in the shadows, Chopped founder Brian Lee posted on social media last Wednesday. “That problem is fraud.” This followed a guilty plea by a former employee to a charge of theft from the payroll of a restaurant. Sentencing was set to another date for a probation report to be provided to the judge in the Circuit Court.

“I’m not going to dwell on the details other than to say I am disappointed, angry and upset but also frustrated with the system that should be addressing it,” Lee added. “I’m highlighting my experience to help others.”

Lee established Chopped in 2012, and the healthy fast-food retailer now has 45 outlets in Ireland plus franchises in Britain, the Netherlands and Cyprus. The Kilbarrack native, who competes internationally in martial arts, has said one lesson he took from grappling was to “pay attention to detail”. What he learned from the theft at Chopped, he posted on Wednesday, is “the importance of having checks and balances in place, and trusting your instincts”.

Lee says he also discovered from sharing his personal experience that fraud has happened “to nearly every business leader at some stage, whether a small family operation or global multinationals”.

Ulster Bank latest lender to donate its artwork

Ulster Bank has stripped all the paintings from its walls as it exits the Irish market. The bank, which will shutter 63 branches today, has donated the best of its art collection to the National Gallery, handing over 40 paintings, 30 prints and two sculptures. No tax break was involved.

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Banks pretty much stopped selling art after 2010, when Bank of Ireland caused a political row by putting some of its collection up for auction. AIB then handed over 40 works to the state. Danske Bank did manage to shift some antique silver in 2016 before exiting Ireland.

The most disappointing art disposal was by Anglo Irish Bank. While the “bad bank” cost the Irish taxpayer billions, its art raised less than €280,000 when sold on the instructions of a liquidator in 2013.

Metropolitan Films’ duels at the WRC

The Last Duel, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, is a recent co-production by Metropolitan Films, the production company based at Ardmore Studios. For its next duel, however, Metropolitan is off to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) to face a batch of “unfair dismissal” claims.

Very much Disenchanted with the company is the Irish Film Workers Association, which filed 42 cases in the WRC between December 2019 and March 2020 under various employment law statutes. Hearings were delayed due to Covid, and 11 cases were withdrawn, but five were heard in December 2021 and another dozen or so a year later. The final tranche is before the WRC in May.

The nub of the dispute is whether these film workers were employed by Metropolitan. It claims they weren’t, and were instead working for a designated activity company (DAC), a wholly owned subsidiary set up for the purposes of claiming tax relief on each production. In the five cases in which the WRC has made decisions, it sided with Metropolitan. Three were appealed to the Labour Court, which again ruled in the company’s favour, but IFWA says all three will be appealed to the High Court.

Looks like a duel with no shortages of sequels.

O’Leary shies away from cattle class

While Ryanair is sometimes accused of treating its passengers like cattle, the airline has no plans to transport actual calves. That’s according to chief executive Michael O’Leary, who was speaking to the farming press before his annual Angus sale at Gigginstown House on Saturday.

The feasibility of flying calves to markets on the continent is certainly being discussed after the closure of a control post at Cherbourg Port last month. However, O’Leary reckons that a “cattle class” would be prohibitively expensive. Revealing that he flew 20 heifers in from Canada to start his Angus herd 25 years ago, the Ryanair boss joked: “And I’m probably still paying for the cost of the flights.”