The Government Chief Whip, Mr Seamus Brennan, has condemned the publication of details of how the Bank of Ireland gave him a £12,000 interest-free loan and then wrote off part of it after he defaulted on several payments.
The Sunday Business Post reported yesterday that the bank decided last year not to pursue Mr Brennan legally on the matter because of his prominent political position. However, Mr Brennan said he had not negotiated, nor had he been aware of, the write-off of part of his loan.
Mr Brennan said yesterday he was seeking legal advice after the newspaper reported that he had been advanced the interest-free loan in 1986 as a restructuring of other borrowings, including an overdraft he had from the bank. He was threatened with legal action twice after he defaulted on the repayments on a number of occasions, the report said.
However, because of his prominent political position, the bank decided to write off the unpaid balance - under £1,000 - after giving him these warnings, it said. If the loan had carried interest, according to the newspaper, some £7,000 would have been due in interest alone.
Mr Brennan last night described the report as "most unfair", saying it "deliberately seeks to create the wrong impression and undermine my good name".
He said the bank account on which he had first built up an overdraft was an ordinary current account into which he lodged his salary and paid family expenses. "Full interest accrued on overdraft periods and from memory, in about 1985 I moved my account to Dublin, and at that time the account had an overdraft of about £12,000.
"The bank agreed to accept a repayment schedule on this of approximately £1,200 a year until the overdraft was cleared. The account is now cleared. Repayments were made for approximately 12 years and I did not concern myself much as to the breakdown between interest and capital. Nor did I negotiate or become aware of any write-off.
"There was no political aspect to this. I was a newly-elected backbencher. As far as the bank was concerned, and as far as I was concerned, the scheduled repayments fully dealt with the matter.
"I am deeply offended by this invasion of my ordinary private domestic current account and somewhat disillusioned that such lengths are now being gone to undermine the good name of public representatives. It is my intention to seek legal advice on this matter."