THE €1.6 million mortgage allegedly fast-tracked by Irish Nationwide Building Society to Irish EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy was advanced to buy a property at the K Club golf resort in Co Kildare, according to internal building society records.
Irish Nationwide granted the loan to Mr McCreevy and his wife Noeleen on a property on the Ladycastle estate at the K Club on September 13th, 2006, which the building society states on its records was valued at €1.5 million.
The property at Straffan was valued in June 2006 and the mortgage amounted to a loan-to-value ratio of 107 per cent based on the society’s records, which have been seen by The Irish Times.
RTÉ’s Prime Time Investigates programme claimed that the loan was granted by Irish Nationwide’s then chief executive Michael Fingleton, despite the building society’s guidelines not allowing 100 per cent mortgages.
Attempts to contact Mr McCreevy through his spokesman proved unsuccessful last night.
Irish Nationwide’s records show that the loan was classified by the building society as an interest-only mortgage and that it was advanced by the building society’s head office on Grand Parade in Dublin.
The loan was granted nine days before the 2006 Ryder Cup competition started at the K Club.
Mr McCreevy and his wife have been making repayments on the loan this year, the records show.
Several Fianna Fáil politicians were named in RTÉ’s programme on Monday as having allegedly received large loans from the society with the minimum paperwork to support the loans.
Olivia Greene, a former home-loans supervisor at Irish Nationwide, claimed in an interview with Prime Time reporter Oonagh Smyth that Fianna Fáil Senator Francis O’Brien had received over €7 million in loans from the building society. Calls to the Senator’s mobile phone seeking comment last night were not returned.
Ms Greene, a lender at the building society from 2000 to 2008, worked closely with Mr Fingleton. She took a constructive dismissal case against the society last year, but later settled her action.
Ms Greene broke a confidentiality agreement reached with the building society as part of that settlement by disclosing to RTÉ details of Irish Nationwide’s loan arrangements withpoliticians.
She featured in a High Court action taken by Irish Nationwide’s home loans manager, Brian Fitzgibbon, against the building society in late 2007.
Mr Fitzgibbon’s case involved a dispute with the building society over a loan application of €4.1 million for a property in Howth, Co Dublin, from fugitive solicitor Michael Lynn, which Ms Greene claimed she had referred to Mr Fingleton prior to being granted.
Ms Greene supported Mr Fitzgibbon’s case, claiming that Mr Fingleton had approved the loan to Mr Lynn who later fled the State over his business dealings.