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A 2008 REPORT by global financial advisory firm Merrill Lynch underestimated the cost of the banking bailout to the Irish taxpayer by €47bn.
The report, which was commissioned by the previous Fianna Fail led government, found that the upper cost of bank recapitalisations would be €16.4bn. The state paid €7.3 million to Merrill Lynch for banking consultancy services during 2008 and 2009.
The Merrill Lynch document was released to Sinn Fein finance spokesman Pearse Doherty as part of a freedom of information request.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Doherty said that paid advisors have an obligation to come before any bank inquiry.
These companies were paid handsomely for their services, and if a sovereign state asks them to participate (in an inquiry) it’s important for them to do that.
The Merrill Lynch report outlines many measures which were included in the formation of the National Asset Management Agency. It found that shifting the bad loans from the bank’s balance sheets would have to be paid for almost entirely by the government, as international investors would most likely be put off by the level of risk involved.
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The report said:
Creating a Nationalised Bank would enable the Government to cleanse the Irish financial system from low quality loans
Doherty said that there needed to be clarity on how the estimates provided to the government of the time could be so wide of the mark. He said that the finding of the report that Irish Nationwide, which eventually needed €5.4bn in cash injections, would only need €428 million, was particularly shocking.
“How were they able to look at Irish Nationwide and say that they required a small amount of capital?”
He said he was not confident that the government would organise a “meaningful bank inquiry” any time soon, and that doing so while former executives at Anglo Irish Bank are still on trial was impossible.
He said the bank inquiry should not limit itself to what the government and oversight bodies of the day did in the run up to the banking crisis.
I would like to focus not just on what the last government and the regulator did, but also on the accountancy and auditing practices of the time. That’s where the real lesson is to be learned-there’s no guarantee that this won’t happen again in 10 or 20 year’s time.
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The hotel in kilkee is only fit for knocking , my buddy worked on it he said that they had to rip all the footpaths out all around it cos it had sank 4 inches before the second fix . It’s built on a bog .
You’re right (for a change) Mule.
The majority of these properties are from Bank Of Scotland Ireland’s/Halifax’s loanbook.
The likes of AIB and Co. are just waiting for all BOSI’s/Halifax’s Repos to be sold (whilst the same time bleeding their distressed customers dry), and then AIB and Co. turn into Cromwell.
I suppose in a sick lot of ways the BOS/Halifax way is more swift and less painless, than the Irish Bank’s Water Torture.
Disgusting.
Truly Disgusting!!
“Put an Irishman on the spit and you can always get another Irishman to turn him”.
Shaw, George Bernard.
What could you do with a third of an acre ( probably less when you include ditches and the road way ) of agricultural land in inniscarra , that would make it 24 thousand an acre…
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