OPEN LETTER TO ALL PUBLIC REPRESENTATIVES.
THE TAKE OVER OF THE QUINN GROUP - ONE YEAR ON.
Saturday the 14th April marks the one year anniversary of the seizing of the profitable Quinn Group by the greatest junk bank this country has ever known. That fateful day will be etched in the memory of the people in the border counties forever, especially as it also marks the anniversary of the day that several coach loads of people travelled to the capital with the petitions of 90.571 people to ask the decision makers in the Central Bank and the Government to give fair and proper consideration to the proposal that would be of most benefit to the citizens of Ireland and particularly those communities in the border counties.
What materialized on that day was beyond comprehension and will go down in history as one of the darkest days in the history of the Cavan, Fermanagh, Leitrim area and indeed the entire debt ridden nation. It defies belief that a proposal that would have guaranteed the return of all monies to the taxpayers (despite the question of the legitimacy of the debt) was discarded without due diligence or fair and proper procedure in favour of a strategy that has not, and never will see the return of one cent for the citizens of Ireland but has instead increased our bill by hundreds of millions of Euros.
THE FACTS
This travesty came about because Sean Quinn invested in good faith, around seven hundred million Euros of his own money in an Irish Bank that was regulated by the Financial Regulator and supervised by the Government. He did nothing illegal or improper. He has been lacerated for the last two years for reckless gambling etc. but it now seems apparent from recent High Court actions that it was in fact Anglo who was gambling with the Quinn Group and the Quinn properties as they “shovelled” enormous amounts of money at Quinn and were in effect managing the Quinn account.
Quinn Insurance was put into administration due to an alleged solvency shortfall (which is questionable) of approx. one hundred and fifty million Euros. We were led to believe that the Government could not afford to invest this amount in the enormously profitable company, something that would have resolved this entire debacle, and yet in much worse economic conditions the Government has made 1.3 billion Euros available to purchase Irish Life. Over 900 jobs were lost straight away and Quinn Insurance was later effectively sold for one euro.
CONCERNED IRISH CITIZENS
The Group, Concerned Irish Citizens (CIC) was founded primarily out of concern that the ordinary citizens of Ireland should be afforded appropriate representation in the Quinn/Anglo debacle, particularly given the fact that it is taxpayer’s money that is at stake since the banks were nationalized. That remit is now more pertinent than ever. The group is mindful of the fact that the request of 90.571 concerned citizens was completely ignored on 14th April last. We were assured on that day that the takeover of the Quinn Group by Anglo was orchestrated to obtain the best possible outcome for the Irish people and to recoup the maximum amount of money. We were also told that the bondholders had taken a hit in the region of 50% in the Anglo “deal” on Quinn. We now know that they took no hit whatsoever.
WHERE WE ARE, ONE YEAR ON!
Not alone has one cent not been recouped for the people of Ireland and never will, under the current strategy, but hundreds of millions of Euros have been added to our bill. Recent reports in the national media estimated that two million Euros of taxpayer’s money is being spent per WEEK on legal costs alone for Anglo in their pursuit of Quinn, not to mention the fact that one of Anglo’s senior executives Mike Aynsley, was paid 866,000 Euros for one year from the public purse. At the same time, people are being driven from Ireland in their droves to foreign shores as a result of what Anglo and other reckless institutions inflicted on the ordinary people of our land. What an amazing country we live in!
Love or loathe Sean Quinn, there is one certainty in all of this. Under his proposal and even in the most pessimistic set of circumstances, the taxpayers would be better off by hundreds of millions of Euros today and the border area would have in excess of 2000 additional jobs. How in the name of God can the current strategy go unchallenged?
The most fundamental question of all is staring us straight in the face:
Why was the takeover of the Quinn Group and the ensuing enormous cost to the taxpayers both in legal costs and PR for Anglo etc. facilitated PRIOR to the legitimacy of the debt being established in a court of law and why is this enormous cost to the Irish Citizens being allowed to continue on a daily basis without question?
Surely, it is illegal for a bank to prop up its own share price and the result of the preliminary hearing indicated that the Quinn’s will be able to use this argument in the full hearing. This charade has all the hallmarks of a scandal that will not only rock this Island of ours to its very core, but may very well expose our country as a laughing stock on the world stage. If the Quinn’s win any part of their action or all of it, as many independent observers predict, who will pay the family the massive costs and damages for loss of the Quinn Group and associated costs. Yes, the citizens of Ireland will foot the bill. If Anglo wins any part of the case against a family who has been stripped of all their companies and whose ability to repay any money has been denied them, who pays the price? Yes, the people of Ireland are once again the losers.
NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED AND NONE OF THIS SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF ANGLO HAD NOT THROWN SEAN QUINN’S PROPOSAL IN HIS FACE.
CALLING ALL PUBLIC REPRESENTATIVE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE THEY REPRESENT!
To mark the anniversary of the takeover of the Quinn Group, Concerned Irish Citizens are now formulating a data base of public representatives who are concerned about the welfare and the best interests of the ordinary people of Ireland who they represent, in this mammoth saga.
We understand that certain aspects of this case must be left to the courts but there is absolutely no excuse for the enormous waste of taxpayer’s money to go unchallenged and without any accountability whatsoever PRIOR TO THE LEGITIMACY OF THE DEBT BEING ESTABLISHED IN A COURT OF LAW.
Every politician in the country will be written to in the next few weeks but in the meantime we are conscious that all local public representatives read their local print media and in this regard now call on those who wish to protect taxpayers money to contact CIC on or before 14th April by emailing patriciagilheany@eircom.net or telephone 087 1497787 to confirm their concern, to protect the best interests of the electorate, and to indicate their willingness to get accountability for the citizens of Ireland. The absence of contact will be regarded as satisfaction with the Anglo strategy to remain without question.
See also http://quinn-anglo-blogspot.com
3 comments:
The silence of our public representatives is deafening. Caoimhghin o Caolain has done his best but there was nobody to support him when he raised this issue in the Dail. It will be interesting to read the list of public representatives(including County COuncillors, I presume) who refuse to act for the people that they are supposed to represent. They are not supposed to be representing the bondholders.
The letter does not mention the fact that Richard Woodhouse misled Belfast High Court in Dec. when he said that Sean Quinn would have been in Dublin on 14th April last with the petitions and to protest, something that can be proven to be totally false by CIC.
I'm ashamed to be Irish when the squandering of billions of euros of public money is facilitated without question and 700,000 people in this country are living in poverty.
Disgraceful behaviour by our politicians. I was at a meeting where Frank feghin fg td said no deal would be done on Quinn insurance without the new government sitting down with Quinn and hearing his proposal. Feighin got hundreds of votes because of this promise which we now know like the hospital was a lie to get a elected. Then he bleats on about how he has become public enemy no 1. Bit of advice Frank don't lie to your constituents. Roll on the next election, he was voted in because of promises he didn't keep.
This weekend marks the anniversary of two significant tragedies. The Titanic sank 100 years ago and the Quinn Group began sinking one year ago when gutless Anglo seized a profitable company that was the pride and joy of every person in the notoriously disadvantaged and forgotten border counties. It too is now a fast sinking ship.
So much for the Government's policy for encouraging job creation.
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