Taxpayer playing banker to property investors

DEVELOPERS:THE NATIONALISATION of Anglo Irish Bank means the taxpayer is now banker to most of the larger property investors and property speculators in the State.

It also means the State is linked to a bank that has been involved in massive property deals in the UK and the US as well as in Ireland.

North Quay Investment Company Ltd, a development firm that is part of the Liam Carroll group, is building a €200 million office development in the Dublin docklands area. Mr Carroll has built thousands of apartments in Dublin over the past 20 years.

His firm has an agreement with Anglo Irish that the bank will use the offices as its new headquarters. The company took out a mortgage with Anglo Irish Bank last year. The bank’s charge is on the site and the company debts, but not on rent arising from the site.

The development was at the centre of a High Court battle in which developer Sean Dunne challenged planning permission given to Carroll’s company by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. The court ruled in Mr Dunne’s favour, and he pressed for demolition of Mr Carroll’s development. This month, Dublin City Council gave permission for the retention of the building.

It is not known what contractual obligation exists for the bank to move into the building.

Anglo Irish was also a lender in a massive property deal in Ringsend, Dublin, where developer and former Fianna Fáil council election candidate, Bernard McNamara, led a consortium that wants to fund a €1.5 billion redevelopment of the former Irish Glass Bottle site. The site was acquired in October 2006 for €412 million by a consortium that included the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. The price equated to €17 million per acre. The deal involved a €288 million loan from Anglo Irish Bank.

Meanwhile, Menolly Homes, which is owned by Séamus Ross and is one of the biggest house builders in the State, has been doing business with Anglo since 1997. Bovale, the unlimited building company run by Michael and Thomas Bailey, has unsatisfied mortgages from Anglo Irish Bank, according to files in the Companies Registration Office.

The Flood tribunal found in 2002 that Michael Bailey had made a corrupt payment to former Fianna Fáil minister Ray Burke, and found he obstructed and hindered the tribunal on eight grounds. A tax settlement totalling €22.17 million made by the two brothers in 2006 and published in Iris Oifigiúil was the largest on record.

Seán Quinn’s insurance, property and quarrying group is the State’s largest privately owned indigenous business. The group is heavily involved with Anglo, both as a borrower and a shareholder.

At the time of the acquisition of the Savoy Hotel group in London by a consortium put together by investment adviser Derek Quinlan, Anglo Irish Bank was attributed with playing a key role. The hotels were bought for €1.1 billion in April 2004.