Finance officials to be subpoenaed to testify in McKillen action

Businessman Paddy McKillen has secured permission to subpoena the Department of Finance secretary general John Moran and others to give evidence in his forthcoming action aimed at preventing hundreds of millions of euro of his loans being sold to the billionaire Barclay brothers.

Mr McKillen claims communications between certain officials in the department, Nama, and representatives of the Barclay brothers relating to the sale of his loans by Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) were unlawful and improper.

The claim was made yesterday, when Mr McKillen secured an order requiring four persons, three of whom were said to be officials of the department and one of Nama at the time of the alleged communications, to give evidence in his March 4th action.

Mr McKillen wants the four to give evidence in relation to the alleged communications and for the purpose of proving emails that allegedly passed between them and the Barclays.

Mr McKillen's lawyers were granted permission to serve subpoenas on John Moran, Danny Buckley and Michael Torpey of the department and on Aideen O'Reilly of Nama.

The orders were granted by Master of the High Court, Edmund Honahan, whose permission is needed to subpoena public servants to attend such hearings.

In an affidavit seeking the subpoenas, solicitor Hugh J Millar said his client, Mr McKillen, was seeking a number of declarations next month against IBRC, its special liquidators, David and Frederick Barclay and certain companies connected with the Barclays.

These relate to next month’s planned sale by IBRC of hundreds of millions of euro in McKillen loans to the Barclays or related entities, which Mr McKillen wants the court to prevent.

He claims such a sale would be in breach of an agreement both parties made as part of their shareholdings in a company that was at the centre of another legal battle in the UK last year over control of three luxury London hotels, which the Barclays won.

Any such sale would breach his rights, including under the European Convention on Human Rights, and would be contrary to public policy, he claims.