BANAMA REPUBLIC - BUSINESS AS USUAL
The following links concern a property developer, who is being bailed out by Nama, but was awarded a lucrative storage contract by the State only two months after the Nama legislation was finalised. The first link is to an article which appeared in the Daily Mirror, by Aine Hegarty, and the second is from Labour TD Joan Burton's webite.
The contract will make €8 million in
profit for the developer, and Burton – not unreasonably – asks if any of this money will go towards paying off the debts?
Will he use EUR20m to pay off his 'toxic' loan to Nama? GANNON'S PAYDAY - Daily Mirror article.
Joan Burton Dail question
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5 comments:
Hi GM, this is maddening, the ruling classes in this country are just laughing at us. Another 1 of the top 10 developers bailed out by NAMA is Johnny Rohan, yet he can manage to hire a private jet to bring Rosanna Davison to Morocco for the weekend at a cost of EUR 60,000. Sickening. We are having to take paycuts and suffer financial hardship to fund this.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/the-tycoon-the-tantrums-and-the-tears-in-a-remarkable-passion-play-2091369.html (details of Mr Rohan jetting off)
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/the-lavish--playgrounds--where-nama-10-frolicked-2072807.html (details of the top10 property developers bailed out by NAMA, who all seem to be enjoying extravagant lifestyles at our expense)
WHY did the museum not BUY the land? Why did he not GIVE, or have it Seized in exchange for NAMA debts. There’s a law to seize the assets of criminals, (Criminal Assets bill?), so the penthouses of drug dealers can be sold and the money goes to the exchequer. If your land ends up in NAMA, by definition you were doing something criminal, therefore, you are an (uncharged) crook.
Maybe I imagine this, but in this country An Awful lot of public money is used to RENT buildings- rather than buy or build them. I work in a public office that costs 1 million a year to rent.
Yes a big problem is lack of planning- but did it never occur to anyone, even when Dublin was smaller in the 60’s and 70’s, to use empty space on plots of public land to build public buildings? I once worked as a civil servant in Belfast, on the enormous Stormont estate- (gifted by a Lord at turn of C20) - which had been filled with modern public offices.
When the IFSC was planned – on empty Docklands, a new Publicly owned Bus station could have been built there. But no- Busarus occupies a tiny cramped bus park under a building I am told is rented, (maybe from social welfare- but still rented). I missed my bus, as it did not pull out where it was supposed to – it seems the Dundalk bus often stops just anywhere there is a space. (Passengers are meant to know this by telepathy)
Look at Collins Barracks Museum- there are many old disused one-time army squares beside this. I’m sure there are/ once were plenty of unused blocks of public land or buildings that can be used for new 100% publicly owned public buildings for museum storage, offices etc. However I imagine many public land banks present in the 60’s / 70’s have been sold to private developers now.
Also re the many school portakabins- seems the schools often don’t even own these- they are Rented, year after year. Despite some being in Very poor condition- how much does it Cost to buy a 2nd hand portacabin.? But somehow certain people keep getting contracts to rent these school portakabins …I simply do NOT ever remember, hearing in NI of schools Renting portakabins, year after year
Could someone do an audit?
1) How many partly used public buildings, & empty tracts of land are there?
2) What is the Ratio of rented public buildings: ratio of 100% publicly owned buildings?
3) We are it seems, a nation desperate to own our own homes: We pay a lot for them due to the avarice of our landed class. But I Strongly suspect the reverse is true with public buildings: What ratio of our public buildings are rented ( a t high rents) -and how does this compare to other countries?
@Ella. Thanks for those links, very illuminating indeed. Must do something in on it, if I get the chance. Mind you, I say that about so many topics. Time, if I only had time.
@ Anna. Good question. There must be loads and loads of public land lying about... even in Collins Barracks Museum site itself is huge, as you point out.
I visited Newbridge house Donabate, a few yrs ago This was built 270 yrs ago, and the ascendancy had little to do but enjoy the spoils that came to them by not giving the peasants a fair share of the wealth of the land.
The house is Stuffed with artifacts. There were Endless balls, houseguests staying for months- at one stage the guide said, ”they put up the cards & gaming tables in the huge ball room- and did not take them down for 4 whole months.” The decadence! What changed in 200 yrs? Rich elite now has Irish accents –and they played dice with the lives of us peasants and mortgaged our futures for 10+ years. I was shocked to read the cost of that Morocco trip. Rosanna may be a nice enough woman- she says she regrets that Rohan’s former girl friend Glenda’s, feelings may have been hurt by this trip. BUT Rosanna says it was spur of the of the moment fun- and she’d do it again.
Let’s say I had a friend called Pat, a small/ medium size builder who had speculated wildly on huge get rich quick building projects. He bullied/ embezzled the life savings of family & friends. He took all the money for his 13 yr old sister’s life saving transplant operation at Crumlin hospital. He bullied a local bank manager to give him massive amounts of money, so now there is none left to lend to local business, many of whom are failing, closing shop, and making their workers redundant- who then emigrate.
He has bled money mercilessly from every defenseless person he knew.
In short Pat is a local scoundrel: everyone in his area has suffered from knowing him and are living a diminished life (in the case of his sister a much Shortened life). But he’s still comfortable- with his plundered loot. No thought of ever giving any back, or making amends. Would you ever accept a day trip to Bray from his man, knowing where his money came from? I know I wouldn’t want to be near him.
That's the thing Anna - to me being ripped off by an Irish landlord, builder, shark, is the same as being ripped off by a "foreign" one.
BTW, I once met Rosanna Davidson's legs. I must tell you about that.
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