PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Seán Gallagher has refused to answer questions about his €82,829 company loan which breached company law.
Approached yesterday, Mr Gallagher referred the questions to his press agent, Richard Moore.
“If you have any question e-mail it to Richard and I will be happy to deal with it,” he said. He then got into his car and was driven away.
However, Mr Gallagher has not responded to questions submitted to him through Mr Moore over recent days concerning the loan. He did not respond to questions submitted to Mr Moore yesterday afternoon.
Company directors are restricted from taking loans from their companies that exceed 10 per cent of the value of their company’s assets. The law is designed to protect creditors.
Mr Gallagher’s interest-free loan from his company, Beach House Training and Consulting Ltd, was for in excess of 70 per cent of its assets.
When asked about the issue last Wednesday, Mr Gallagher issued a statement through Mr Moore saying he was told by his accountants when they were compiling the 2009 accounts for Beach House “that this loan was not in accordance with the Companies Act.
“Upon being advised of this by his accountants, Mr Gallagher repaid the director’s loan.”
On RTÉ’s Frontline on Monday night Mr Gallagher said the cheque was lodged to an incorrect account by his bookkeeper because the name on the cheque was incorrect.
On the Last Word on Today FM yesterday he said the cheque was lodged to the account of a company he had with a “very similar” name.
Filings in the Companies Registration Office show that in 2009 Mr Gallagher was a director of Smartwatch Ltd, Smarthomes Ltd, Smarthomes Group Ltd, and Beach House Training and Consulting Ltd.
Mr Gallagher has been asked through Mr Moore to give the date the loan was repaid, and to identify the company that wrote the cheque and the name of the company to whose account Mr Gallagher says it was mistakenly lodged.
Yesterday Mr Moore discussed the issue briefly with The Irish Times in the Today FM offices in Dublin while Mr Gallagher was in studio pre-recording an interview with Matt Cooper.
An hour later when Mr Gallagher emerged from the building he refused to pause to take a question on the matter. Seeming to be very angry, he walked straight from the lift through the lobby and out to his car.
“I am going to clear my name from a lie and a smear campaign from Sinn Féin,” he said, without pausing, when asked if he would answer a question.
“If you have any question e-mail it to Richard and I will be happy to deal with it . . . I was on national TV last night and I was accused of being a liar and I am going to deal with this first.”
Mr Gallagher said on Monday that the cheque arose from business interests he has and was not linked to his motivational speaking.
On the Last Word, he said the Beach House accounts “were never filed with the technical breach” and so no breach of company law occurred.
The filed accounts for Beach House for 2009 show the loan to Mr Gallagher was outstanding on December 31st, 2009. The directors of the company are Mr Gallagher and his wife, who signed off on the 2009 accounts in August 2010.