ACC Bank, Department of
Finance, Marie Mackle, KPMG, A and L Goodbody Solicitors, Kevin Knightly
ACC Bank
ACC Bank has promised to
focus on loan recovery, and in particular to pursue Cowboy Builders who
continue to profiteer from the very assets that they had put up as collateral
for loans that have for a very long time been toxic. The bizarre situation has
arisen due to the fact that Cowboy Builders have been able to drag out court
proceedings for up to 5 years and during this time of uncertainty they have
been able to pay a small rent to the Receivers and continue to profit from
assets that should long since have been recovered by the Banks.
Kevin Knightly is leading
the charge to ensure that all out-standing loans are satisfied by means of
recovering assets held by Cowboy Builders and Developers.
Mr Knightly added: "ACC
Bank has remained at the forefront of loan recovery activity in the Irish
market. We will continue with our approach to loan recovery but do not need to
be a fully licensed bank for this purpose."
Department of Finance
She was a lone voice at the
heart of the Department of Finance, warning about the dangers of the
overheating property market, but those warnings were ignored.
She now no longer works at
the department, but one of those who strove to keep her warnings quiet has just
become Michael Noonan's most senior official.
In April 2012, the Sunday
Independent introduced the name of Marie Mackle to the country as the
whistle-blower who had sought to alert the powers that be, including then
minister Brian Cowen, about how the crash was coming.
Oireachtas Banking Inquiry
"I paid the price for
being a whistle-blower," she claimed in an official submission to a review
panel into the department after her predictions came to pass. She is however to
be a star witness at the upcoming Oireachtas Banking Inquiry. Several members
of the inquiry have this weekend said she is a witness they must hear from.
Derek Moran has this month
been appointed by the Government as Secretary-General of the Department of
Finance.
Back in 2005, Ireland was a
country in the middle of a property boom. The nation was addicted to cheap
money and, based on the belief that prices would keep on rising, demand
exploded. The arrival of 100 per cent mortgages and a raft of property-related
tax breaks poured fuel on the fire that would two years later destroy the
country.
Officially, at the time, the
Department of Finance and its then minister Brian Cowen lionised the success
story of Ireland's property boom. They said the boom was based on sound
fundamentals, a rapidly increasing population and full employment. "There
is no reason to believe that any of the fundamental driving factors are about
to go into reverse," Cowen said many times in speeches at the time.
However, top-secret internal
emails and documents seen by The Irish Observer revealed that Mackle's isolated
courageous voice within that department was screaming for the madness to stop.
But the warnings were ignored and erased from public statements by senior
officials, including Moran.
These secret emails show how
her crucial warnings to her superiors, throughout 2005 and 2006 - at the height
of the boom - that Ireland was heading for an economic crash were erased from
public statements made by Cowen and the department.
Time and time again, always
basing her observations on reports from bodies like the ESRI, the OECD, the IMF
and the Central Bank, Mackle drafted warnings for her bosses, who noted her
objections countless times, to dismiss them.
More alarmingly, the documents
catalogue beyond doubt how Mackle's warnings were systematically removed and
erased from draft answers to Parliamentary Questions from opposition TDs, who
had begun to ask questions about the government's reliance on property-based
taxes.
Mackle began raising
concerns that Ireland was facing a property crash in January 2005.
The assistant principal officer
began to say that evidence from various bodies like the IMF, the OECD and the
Central Bank warning of great risks "deserved attention".
A month later, in an email,
which was copied to Derek Moran, Mackle again noted her concern about the risks
of a housing crash, but conceded that her section head ultimately had the call
on what is to be included in the final reply.
"I felt it should
acknowledge the risks to the housing market. However, I am new to the area. As
head of the section you decide what goes into the final reply and obviously I
must do as directed," she wrote. None of her concerns was contained in the
final official replies given in Cowen's name, which remain on the Dail record
to this day.
In 2006, Mackle's objections
became more pronounced. A clearly frustrated Mackle called into question
Cowen's "soft stance" on the threat of a crash. "I have
difficulties with the line taken on debt, for reasons clear in the CB report.
While personal views can't appear in a PQ, the minister appears to perhaps be
taking a softer line than the CB on debt."
Mackle produced an
alternative reply which she said "is more trenchant but has a zero chance
of being passed by the department." In May 2006, an extraordinary series
of emails were exchanged around the formation of a reply to a priority question
from then Fine Gael TD Paul McGrath.
Again Mackle raised concerns.
One email exchange between her and bosses, including Moran, showed clearly how
her concerns were ignored and vanished from the official replies and how she
was forced to adopt the "official position" which she totally
disagreed with.
"Two replies have been
drafted. The first contains material which is as close as I can get to the
official position. The second represents what I perceive to be a more accurate
reply but may be unacceptable to the department. I have serious doubts and
reservations about the past official position on the housing market," she
wrote starkly. She reiterated her concern in an email to one senior official.
The official replied:
"The first reply is acceptable . . . the second reply with reference to
consideration given to broadening of the tax base is not appropriate from the
tax side."
It is clear that Moran was
becoming annoyed at her persistence and delivered a put down to her saying that
he did not want a series of emails from her, but just one email per question.
"For future reference I want only one reply to each question. . . (official).
Answer is okay with me. . ." Moran wrote.
A month later, Mackle was
instructed by Moran to issue a highly positive statement extolling the virtues
of the broad consensus that there would be a "soft landing" in
comparison to her by now well-voiced concerns. "Go back to them and say
this
. . . the large increase in new housing
supply will restore equilibrium to the market
. .
. There is a broad consensus amongst commentators that the most likely outcome
for the housing market is a 'soft landing'. The government continues to run a
prudent, stability-orientated budgetary policy . . ." Moran said to
Mackle.
Wright Commission
In November 2010 she
prepared a 22-page report for a departmental review group into what went so
badly wrong inside its Merrion Street walls. In a dossier for the Wright
Commission, Mackle said she felt she became an isolated and alienated figure
within her department for attempting to speak out.
A spokesman for the
Department of Finance said this weekend that Moran was merely reflecting the
view of then minister Brian Cowen.
"It is not Derek's
view, nor is it Marie Mackle's view; it is the position of the Minister. So the
answer has to reflect the position of the minister," the spokesman said.
The IRISH OBSERVER has confirmed this weekend that Marie Mackle has since left
the department. She did the State some service.
