THE CARLISLE group of companies established by John Byrne saw the value of their investment properties fall significantly during 2008, according to accounts filed recently.

Three of the group’s main companies saw their investment properties drop in value to €91 million at the end of 2008, from €148.5 million at the end of the previous years. This constitutes a drop in value of 38.73 per cent.

The companies own a range of investment properties in Dublin including O’Connell Bridge House, D’Olier House and Townsend House. They also own properties on Parnell Square leased by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and the Companies Registration Office.

Not all of the companies in the group publish accounts.

The Irish holding company, Carlisle Trust, saw the value of its investment properties fall to €40.3 million from €70.8 million, while the value of shares in subsidiaries rose to €7.2 million from €1.5 million. The properties had a historical value of €14 million.

The company and its subsidiaries owed €27.9 million to the Bank of Ireland at year’s end, up from €18.4 million at the end of 2007, accounts show. Their debt to KBC Bank was €76.7 million, up from €51.4 million a year earlier.

Ciara Byrne is the only director with shares in the company. They were formerly held by her husband.

The investment properties of subsidiary company Dublin City Estates fell in value to €10.8 million from €23 million the previous year. The properties had a historical cost of €1.37 million.

The value of the investment properties of Smithfield Property Development Ltd fell to €32.7 million from €50 million. The value of property in the course of development by the company was €76 million, compared to €45 million the previous year.

The directors of Carlisle Trust are John and Ciara Byrne and their son John Patrick Byrne. Its ultimate parent is Prospect Holdings, a Cayman Islands company owned in turn by a Cayman trust.

Mr Byrne, a native of Co Kerry who went to work in England before returning here in the 1960s, is also associated with a Cayman trust that owns English property.

He is a former associate of the late taoiseach, Charles Haughey, and of the architect of the Ansbacher deposits structure, the late Des Traynor.

Mr Byrne has challenged in the courts findings made against him by the High Court inspectors who investigated the so-called Ansbacher deposits.