Mick Wallace over €235,000 in arrears on mortgages

Wexford TD’s statement of affairs gives average after-tax income as €4,000 a month

TD Mick Wallace owns a BMW X5 valued at €3,000 and three houses which are all in negative equity. He has a debt of €290,016 to his ex-wife Mary Murphy. Photograph: Gareth Chaney Collins

Wexford TD Mick Wallace, who was declared a bankrupt on Monday, has arrears totalling €235,571 on mortgages associated with three houses he owns, according to his statement of affairs.

All three detached properties are in negative equity and are secured against mortgages from AIB and also secured against loans from ACC.

Mr Wallace’s family home in Clontarf has a value of €800,000 and a mortgage of €908,177, according to the statement of affairs. Arrears are €77,041.

A three-bed, detached buy-to-let property at Bargy, Danescastle, Co Wexford, has a value of €175,000, a mortgage of €262,556, and arrears of €50,580.

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Another three-bed, detached, buy-to-let property at Youngstown, Co Wexford, has a value of €140,000, a mortgage of €191,732, and arrears of €107,950.

Declared bankrupt

The Independents4Change deputy was declared a bankrupt on the application of a subsidiary of US fund Cerberus arising out of a debt of €2 million.

The subsidiary, Promontoria (Aran) Limited, took over the loans from Ulster Bank. The loans were to Mr Wallace’s company and personally guaranteed by him. Mr Wallace has total debts of €30 million.

His statement of affairs says he owns “immovable property” of €1.11 million, €250 in cash, and credit of €5,300 in a bank account, as well as investments of €214,986.

Mr Wallace has a pension with a value of €214,986, the details of which are with New Beginning Financial Services, and a Dáil pension the value of which is unascertained, according to the document.

He owns a BMW X5, with mileage of 434,000km, and an estimated value of €3,000.

Mr Wallace's unsecured creditors include a debt of €51,329 with AIB Ballsbridge, Dublin, and a debt of €290,016 to the deputy's former wife, Mary Murphy. Debts of €2 million to Promontoria and €7.7 million to AIB are covered by personal guarantees. The total is €10.14 million.

Expenses

The deputy’s average monthly income after tax is about €4,000 and his reasonable monthly expenses are given as €1,096 with a further €2,000 for other costs such as rent, and so on, in the statement of affairs.

Earlier in December, Mr Wallace met personal insolvency practitioner James Green, of Letterkenny, Co Donegal, in Dublin who advised him that there was no possibility of Mr Wallace getting a personal insolvency arrangement organised given the position adopted by ACC, which obtained a €20 million judgment order against Mr Wallace in 2012.

In a letter from Mr Green to Mr Wallace, there is a reference to Mr Wallace’s concerns about the constitutionality of those sections of the 2012 insolvency law that stipulate that a debtor cannot make a proposal for a personal insolvency arrangement unless his or her secured debts are less than €3 million, or where all of the secured creditors agree in writing that the €3 million threshold should not apply.

ACC, the letter states, had not agreed to a €3 million cap on Mr Wallace’s debt. Mr Green told Mr Wallace that the issue of the law’s constitutionality was a matter for the politician.

Colm Keena

Colm Keena

Colm Keena is an Irish Times journalist. He was previously legal-affairs correspondent and public-affairs correspondent