Enough Damage. DDDA Is A Farce linked to Anglo-Irish. Shut It Down Now.
Enough Damage.
DDDA Is A Farce linked to Anglo-Irish.
Shut The DDDA Autocracy Down Now.
The Developer’s Autocracy (DDDA) should be shut down immediately. It is cross-contaminated by Anglo-Irish Bank and is even using curious materials from the promoters of the Poolbeg Incinerator – where politically-challenged and politically appointed officials in Bord Pleanala and EPA-Ireland apparently over-rode the professionals, apparently. Do your own research to form your own opinion.
__________________
See article posted as comment number 1
See Feb/March edition of Village Magazine.
See Shane Ross, Senator, Irish Republic.
Lifting a lid on Anglo’s links to the docklands
Anglo Irish Bank helped finance the property explosion in the docklands, but was it too close for comfort to the docks development agency, wonder Nick Webb and Louise McBride
Poolbeg Incinerator, Dublin Docklands Authority, Dublin Developers Autocracy, Waste-To-Toxins, Anglo Irish Bank,
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/lifting-a-lid-on-anglorsquos-links-to-the-docklands-1640827.html?service=Print
February 19, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Lifting a lid on Anglo’s links to the docklands
Anglo Irish Bank helped finance the property explosion in the docklands, but was it too close for comfort to the docks development agency, wonder Nick Webb and Louise McBride
ANGLO Irish Bank lent more than €1bn to property tycoons building massive office, shopping and apartment blocks in Dublin’s docklands, while its former chairman Sean FitzPatrick sat on the board of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.
A Sunday Independent investigation can reveal that Anglo Irish Bank was the dominant lender for much of the major development that transformed the area and made tens of millions of euros in profits for Anglo’s clients.
The profitability of these schemes would have been hugely dependent on decisions from the authority.
The authority had the power to decide on a range of specifications from social housing quotas to height or density — all of which were of massive importance to the builders. Latest figures from the DDDA show that social housing units are just below the government figure of 20 per cent of all new housing developments. Anglo would have pocketed millions of euros in fees and interest from funding these schemes.
Anglo’s links to the Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) are extensive. While still chief executive of the bank, Sean FitzPatrick joined the DDDA board in 1998, finally leaving in 2007.
Former Anglo Irish Bank director Lar Bradshaw was also a key player in deciding how the docklands was developed.
He was chairman of the DDDA from 1997 until 2007. Bradshaw joined the board of Anglo in 2002, resigning in the wake of the loans scandal last December.
Another Docklands board member Donall Curtin is married to a senior Anglo executive Anne O’Donoghue. Curtin said that he told the DDDA of his wife’s role at Anglo. She has never been involved in the lending side. The DDDA was satisfied that no conflict of interest existed in either the acquistiion or the financing of the IGB site, according to Curtin.
Another former DDDA board member Angela Cavendish had been involved in financing property in East Point with Anglo Irish Bank more than a decade ago. Former DDDA board member Declan McCourt is a director of vast car importer OHM, which has had a number of loans with Anglo Irish Bank through its Scanveco subsidiary.
McCourt absented himself from meetings when Anglo and BoI, of which he is a director, were being discussed. The DDDA insists there is no issue with corporate governance.
“The code gives clear direction as to the procedure for disclosure of interest by members of the board and the impact of such declations on the workings of the board.
The provisions have been consistently applied in full to the DDDA’s business, according to the Authority.
The uncomfortable relationship between the Docklands Development agency and Anglo Irish Bank was first revealed in the Sunday Independent in early 2007.
Michael Smith, the campaigner whose inquiries led to the establishment of the planning tribunal, made a complaint to the Standards in Public Office (SIPO) about these links. He believed that about 15 property development companies — largely owned by the best-known developers in the State — were the principal builders in the area. The majority of these, he claimed, were bankrolled by Anglo.
The €411m purchase of the Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend by a consortium including Bernard McNamara, Derek Quinlan and the Docklands Development Authority has proved particularly contentious. Especially as
Anglo Irish Bank provided a large chunk of the €293m in bank financing for the deal. Anglo also split a €5m “arrangement fee” with fellow financiers AIB.
At the time the DDDA decided to buy into the Glass Bottle site, and to approve the consortium's decision to borrow the €293m from Anglo Irish Bank and AIB, Lar Bradshaw, the DDDA's chairman, was a director of Anglo. Sean FitzPatrick, the then chairman of Anglo, was also on the board of the DDDA.
While Bradshaw and Fitz- Patrick both declared their conflict of interest in the meetings about the Glass Bottle site in October and November 2006, and absented themselves from meetings, their involvement with the DDDA has clearly sparked concerns.
After a preliminary inquiry SIPO decided not to launch a full investigation into connections between Anglo and the DDDA. “While it may be that both [Sean FitzPatrick and Lar Bradshaw] held substantial shareholdings in the bank, there was no evidence that either held ‘control' of the bank,” it noted.
The report was made long before it emerged that Fitz- Patrick had ridden roughshod over corporate governance rules to hide nearly €100m in personal loans off Anglo’s balance sheet. And before it emerged that Anglo had been cooking its books thanks to over €8bn in loans from Irish Life & Permanent.
Summing up its findings, SIPO also noted that there was no evidence that any of the decisions made by the authority “had the consequence or effect of conferring on either Mr FitzPatrick or Mr Bradshaw personally a significant benefit”.
But the sheer scale of Anglo Irish Bank’s involvement in financing the development of the docklands has never emerged. Until now.
As well as the high-profile and hugely controversial €293m loan to fund the purchase of the Irish Glass Bottle site, Anglo Irish Bank was the chief lender in the syndicate that provided Richard Barrett and Johnny Ronan’s Treasury Holdings with more than €390m for the development of Spencer Dock. This was the largest secured property loan in the history of the State.
Crucially, Sean FitzPatrick was involved with the DDDA board when it made decisions on the make-up and the density of the scheme. Anglo was also involved in financing for another Treasury tower project in Grand Canal Quay.
Anglo financed much of Paddy Kelly’s development in the area including the €80m National College of Ireland, the adjacent Clarion Hotel and apartments. These two projects were valued at €125m by Kelly’s Redquartz Group.
The bank also stumped up over €13m for a recent redevelopment of the hotel.
Kelly’s Haytonvale Developments, which built the €75m Ivory building and Quality Inn (now Maldon Hotel) block was funded by Anglo.
The Kelly-fronted €150m Gallery Quay apartment and office block was also financed by Anglo. The McCormack family’s Alanis Capital was also involved in a number of Kelly projects. The €175m SJQ complex on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay was also bankrolled by Anglo.
Although primarily backed by AIB, Bank of Ireland and Bank of Scotland, apartment king Liam Carroll was also an Anglo customer, with his companies Danninger and Zoe Developments having mortgages registered with the bank. Carroll was working on a deal to build a new €200m headquarters for Anglo Irish Bank as part of a €1.5bn complex on the north docks.
Sean Kelly’s Benton Properties, which is developing land at the Boland’s Mills site, is also backed by Anglo Irish Bank. Benton paid €42m for the land in 2004.
Derek Quinlan, who was partially financed by Anglo in his €1.4bn buyout of Jurys Inns, is also a major player in the docklands with some of his private clients owning several sites.
Sean Dunne, whose plans for a massive tower block in Ballsbridge have been thwarted, has also been funded by Anglo. His Mountbrook company is behind the Bloodstone building as well as the Riverside office complex. Bernard McNamara — another massive Anglo client — developed the €180m Longboat Quay.
Both Quinlan and McNamara are involved in the controversial Glass Bottle site deal.
Along with McNamara and the Derek Quinlan consortium, the Sunday Independent has learned that DDDA has already forked out over €7.5m in interest since it bought the site for €411m in late 2006. The purchase of the 26-acre site was funded with a €293m loan from Anglo Irish Bank and AIB.
The DDDA holds a 26 per cent stake in the site.
Valuations of the site have tumbled, with Davy recently writing down its private client investment to about 60 per cent. DDDA boss Paul Maloney told an Oireachtas committee:
“We recognise the value is in the order of 20 to 30 per cent lower than the valuation received in 2007.”
Last week it emerged that the DDDA had stopped paying interest on the bank loans for the site. The Becbay consortium has already paid almost €7.5m interest on the €293m loan. Becbay, which has not paid any interest since the end of June 2008, has been renegotiating the terms of the loan over what the DDDA described as “short-term technical issues”.
The DDDA has guaranteed €26m of the €293m loan. A member of the Dail committee, Fine Gael TD Phil Hogan, criticised Maloney for “taking a very casual approach” to the valuation of Glass Bottle site. “When renegotiating [the terms of a loan], I would expect to know what the property is worth before I enter a meeting. How could anyone renegotiate with a bank without having professional advice on what the site is worth?”
Another complex transaction involving the DDDA, property developers and Anglo Irish Bank is the relocation of the National College of Ireland from Ranelagh to the docklands. The DDDA provided lands for the development of the NCI's campus in the IFSC, which opened in 2002. Joyce O'Connor — a sister of former Anglo chair, Sean FitzPatrick — was president of the college at the time the deal for the construction and financing of the new campus was agreed in 1997. Both the DDDA and the college have pointed out that this was a year before Sean FitzPatrick joined the DDDA board.
It cost about €80m to build the new campus — €44.4m of which was provided by the NCI. The Origin 8 consortium, which included Paddy Kelly, the McCormack family and Ged Pierse’s Pierse Contracting won the contract to build the college. When contacted by the Sunday Independent recently, Kelly confirmed Anglo was his backer.
“Anglo provided the loan for the NCI, as they did a lot of the developments in the docks,” said Kelly. Documents show that the bank provided a €70m “development facility” to the consortium.
The sheer scale of Anglo’s financing of developments in the area, the links between the bank and the DDDA and the role FitzPatrick played in approving developments built by Anglo clients will need to be examined in detail.
February 19, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Seanie’s plaything?
Disgraced banker Sean Fitzpatrick is inextricably linked to the Docklands Authority. Should we be worried?
By Cormac Murphy
Monday February 16 2009
Shamed banker Sean FitzPatrick’s inextricable links to the Dublin Docklands Development Authority can be seen from his membership of four key committees.
When Mr FitzPatrick led the DDDA into a controversial €412m land deal, he was simultaneously a member of the State company’s finance, audit, risk and remuneration committees.
And it has now emerged the authority was worried about its exposure to the property market even before it took a stake in the Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend at the height of the boom.
A downturn in the property market was identified as a key risk facing the semi-state body as far back as 2005.
The assessment came months before the DDDA — under the guidance of Mr FitzPatrick — took a 26pc share in the Ringsend site.
The revelation has raised fresh concerns about the financial controls at the state company.
Mr FitzPatrick’s ties to the DDDA go back to 1998 when the former Anglo Irish Bank chairman was appointed to the semi-state’s executive board by then Environment Minister Noel Dempsey. The ex-banker, who retired from the authority in April 2007, was one of a group of DDDA members who travelled to Spain in October 2006 at a cost of €18,728.66 to the organisation.
Also on the trip was Lar Bradshaw — who was chairman of the DDDA up until June 2007, and was a director at Anglo until last December — Declan McCourt, Donall Curtin, Mary Moylan, Joan O’Connor, Niamh O’Sullivan and Angela Cavendish. They stayed in the five-star Maria Cristina hotel in San Sebastian.
Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan told the Herald the board’s decision to proceed with the purchase of the Ringsend site when it was also signalling the risks of over exposure to the property market was “irresponsible and reckless”.
However, the DDDA told the Herald it is “satisfied” with becoming involved in the €412m land deal.
“The Docklands Authority is entirely satisfied with its role as a partner in the former Irish Glass Bottle site. It intends to realise its objectives in the longer term of a five- to seven-year period,” a spokeswoman said.
A 2005 report from the authority’s executive board stated a key risk facing the DDDA was a “future downturn in the property market”.
The document, which formed part of the state company’s annual report, added that the board had “developed a range of strategies” to address this and other risks, though these were not outlined.
Only months after the report was published, the DDDA joined with developer Bernard McNamara and financier Derek Quinlan to form a consortium to buy the Ringsend site.
It is estimated that the land has since dropped in value by between 30pc and 50pc.
An Oireachtas environment committee heard earlier this week that Becbay stopped paying interest eight months ago on the €293m loan it obtained to buy the site.
Mr Hogan challenged Environment Minister John Gormley “to clarify the solvency” of the DDDA.
comurphy@herald.ie
- Cormac Murphy
February 19, 2009 at 2:09 pm
We should force Seanie to explain his actions
His actions dragged the country into the mud. Now Sean FitzPatrick should face the music
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Also in Dan White
* The people of this country have a RIGHT to know whose €300m bank debts they are bailing out
* HOW a basketcase bank and the powerful planning authority are linkedl Just what is the DDDA?
* Just how safe are our nest eggs in the banks?
* How falling prices can lead to disaster
* Crisis will only worsen unless Cowen sets up real toxic bank
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By Dan White
Tuesday February 17 2009
Disgraced banker Sean FitzPatrick's refusal to appear before a Dail committee shows that the moneymen still don't get it. With the taxpayer now on the hook for the guts of half a trillion euro for the liabilities of the Irish banking system we are the masters now.
Really, the only surprise at the news that Sean (Seanie) FitzPatrick had refused an invitation to appear before the Dail Economic and Regulatory Affairs Committee, was that anyone was surprised. During the 24 years that he ran Anglo as his personal piggybank, first as chief executive and then from 2005 to last year as chairman, Seanie developed certain delusions of grandeur.
As the Anglo share price climbed higher and higher FitzPatrick was praised in ever more extravagant terms. Invitations to serve on the boards of other companies, both publicly and privately owned poured in. Aer Lingus, Greencore, the Dublin Docklands Development Auth-ority and Smurfit Kappa (as chairman) were among the blue chip companies where Seanie served as a "grunt-a-month" non-executive director.
With Anglo being rated the best performing bank in Europe during the middle of the decade, Government ministers queued up to receive advice from the Sun King. Having turned a tiny one-man-and-his-dog operation into Ireland's third largest bank, with a peak market value of more than €13bn by May 2007, Seanie, it seemed, could do no wrong. But it was all smoke and mirrors. Anglo, it now transpires had lent virtually all of its €72bn loan book to builders and property developers.
That was great when property prices were soaring, but not so good now that property prices are in free fall. Many, perhaps most of its borrowers, are no longer even paying the interest on their loans.
This group apparently includes the DDDA, which paid an astronomical €412m for the former Irish Glass Bottle factory site in 2006. This was largely paid for by a €293m loan from Anglo. Last week the DDDA confirmed that interest is no longer being paid on this loan as it is being renegotiated.
FitzPatrick served as a DDDA director between 2002 and 2007.
If it weren't for last September's unconditional government guarantee of bank deposits, which exposed the taxpayer to a potential liability of almost €500bn, and last month's nationalisation of the bank, it is difficult to see how Anglo could have survived.
In other words, Anglo is now surviving on the charity of the Irish taxpayer. And now this bum refuses to appear before a committee of our elected representatives to explain how his mismanagement has dragged the reputation of this country through the mud and threatens to beggar not just this generation but future generations of taxpayers.
Our politicians should grow a bit of backbone and pass the legislation necessary to compel FitzPatrick to testify to the committee. I want to see him dragged, kicking and screaming and in chains if necessary, before the committee to explain his actions.
While FitzPatrick's refusal to testify was hardly a surprise, the slashing of the Irish Nationwide's credit rating served as a nasty reminder that the Irish banking crisis will almost certainly get much worse before it gets better.
Those with long memories will remember that it was the decision of ratings agencies Moody's and Standard & Poors to cut the Irish Nationwide's credit rating last September, which triggered the Irish banking crisis. Yesterday Moody's moved again, cutting the Nationwide's credit rating by two notches to just one level above "junk".
If the Nationwide's deposits weren't state-guaranteed no one in their right minds would now deposit a red cent with Michael Fingleton's outfit.
With four-fifths of its €12.5bn of loans being to builders and property developers, the odds must now be that the Nationwide will quickly follow Anglo into public ownership when it publishes its 2008 results next month.
- Dan White