Cantillon: No straight answers for taxpayers

The appearances this week at the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry of current Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher and former Ulster Bank chief executive Cormac McCarthy were fascinating in terms of lifting the lid on the decisions taken at two of the State's biggest financial institutions in the run-up to the crash.

Apart from their apologies and acknowledgments of mistakes, there was one thread that pulled their testimony together – Seán Dunne and his grand plans in the boom years for the two hotel sites he bought in Ballsbridge for mind-boggling sums. Boucher wrote a letter of support to planners for Dunne’s over-ambitious Knightsbridge-style plan.

"That letter was a mistake. It was one of the many stupid things I've done," he told Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins.

Higgins asked Boucher why he had made such a representation, and there followed some confusion over the bank executive’s immunity in giving evidence.

The absolute privilege afforded to witnesses only applies in the Irish State, a point referenced by Boucher. “I have tried to be as helpful as I can, but I have to point out I do not have that privilege outside this jurisdiction, and it has been pointed out to me. So I could be sued. Being straight about it,” was Boucher’s reply.

The committee had even less success with McCarthy, who said he couldn’t comment on the Ballsbridge development as there were legal proceedings in train and it was also a matter of customer confidentiality. Ulster Bank was one of the main lenders to Dunne’s project.

Bizarrely, Pearse Doherty read into the record lengthy quotes from Dunne about how he came to obtain his loans from Ulster Bank for the Ballsbridge development, from a Sunday Tribune article dating from March 2008.

Dunne had flown back from a family holiday in Thailand to put together the funding for Ballsbridge and Ulster Bank came up trumps within days. Doherty wanted to know if it had been common practice in Ulster Bank to approve a loan for more than €100 million in just a short number of days.

“Deputy, unfortunately, I can’t comment on that particular situation, for both confidentiality and legal reasons. So I have to say I cannot respond to that,” was McCarthy’s response to his query.

It’s a strange set of affairs that an Oireachtas inquiry charged with investigating a banking crisis that cost taxpayers €64 billion and then some can’t get straight answers on a property deal that epitomised the crazy lending of the time.