Have a look at this report (2nd item) where NAMA chief Brendan McDonagh delivers what RTE News describes as a ‘stark warning’ to developers who are not cooperating with NAMA.
“If we don’t think you’re viable we will take enforcement action against you,”
McDonagh (darkly) warns.
If I was a developer listening to Mr. McDonagh I would feel very safe. The NAMA chief sounds like a frightened schoolboy threatening the well built school bully with dire consequences if he refuses to hand back stolen pocket money.
As we start out on the long NAMA road let me make something crystal clear.
No developer will face enforcement action, no developer will lose out financially or otherwise, all developers and especially those who have made generous political donations will be well looked after.
Why? Because that’s the way things are done in a dysfunctional country like Ireland.
Developers are already well ahead of NAMA in protecting their interests. The Mail on Sunday (January 3rd) reports that two members of the infamous Anglo Irish Golden Circle, Gerry Gannon and Joe O’Reilly have signed over several tranches of multimillion property assets to their wives.
The paper also reported last July that developer Liam Carroll and Sean Dunne transferred properties to their wives.
The State will do nothing to stop these transfers until all developers have secured their assets.
Then, at some point in the future we will see politicians and officials like Mr. McDonagh wringing their hands as they tell us that it’s too late to act so the taxpayer must pay but, going forward, we must make sure this kind of thing never happens again.
We only need to read a report on the same page in the same newspaper to understand why the State will not take enforcement action against non cooperative developers.
Developer Michael Bailey has bribed politicians, committed perjury and robbed millions in unpaid taxes and yet he’s still walking around a free man.
The weak and ineffective ODCE has been trying for years, and failing, to impose even the minimum sanction open to the state, to ban Bailey from acting as a director of a company.
Not only is the State allowing this crook off scot free but it seems that Anglo Irish Bank, fully owned by the taxpayer, is preparing to pump millions into his company in an effort to rescue it from financial ruin.
This level of state cooperation and support for a corrupt developer puts Mr. Mc Donagh’s ‘stark warning’ into context – Non cooperative developers can sleep soundly in their beds.
See here for report on possible support for Bailey’s company by Anglo Irish Bank and here for an excellent analysis of the proposal by Fintan O’Toole.