Author: Gavin Sheridan

More Anglo Irish Bank subsidaries

Here are more to add to the long list (some have been mentioned before), and it is worth noting all of these companies are subject to the Ethics in Public Office Act:

Anglo Irish Bank Limited
Anglo Irish Assurance Company Limited
Anglo Irish Corporate Bank Limited
Anglo Irish International Finance
Anglo Irish Asset Management Limited
Buyway Group Limited
Pagnol Limited
Anglo Irish Nominees Limited
Anglo Irish Bank (Nominees) Limited
Geranth Limited
Pegasus Nominees Limited
Anglo Irish Bank ESOP Limited
Anglo Irish Bank Capital Partners Limited
Anglo Irish Administration Limited
Anglo Irish Financial Services Limited
CF Limited
Modify 5 Limited
Anglo Irish International Financial Services Limited
Ansbacher Bankers Limited
IBOC Limited Irish
Buyway Limited
Knightsdale Limited
Sparta Financial Services
Fitzwilliam Leasing Limited
Anglo Irish Mortgage Bank
Anglo Irish Funding 1 Limited
Anglo Irish Funding 2 Limited
Anglo Irish Funding 3 Limited
Anglo Irish Funding 4 Limited
Anglo Irish Funding 5 Limited
Anglo Irish Funding 6 Limited
Anglo Irish Capital Funding Limited Steenwal B.V.
Anglo Irish Bank Corporation (International) PLC
Anglo Irish Holdings IOM Limited
AIT (Nominees) Limited
Anglo Irish Nominees (IOM) Limited
Anglo Irish Trust (IOM) Limited
Alexan Limited
Beaugrand Sarl
Belalan Bischoffshein Freehold SPRL
Belalan Bischoffshein Leashold SPRL
Belalan Holdings SPRL
Belalan Louise Freehold SPRL
Belalan Louise Leashold SPRL
Belalan Meir Freehold SPRL
Belalan Meir Leashold SPRL
Berala Sarl
Castle Farm Campus (Telford) Limited
Chancery Place Limited Sarl
Erste DIG Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH
Fellstar Limited
Fenlay Limited
Finsbury Dials Sarl
Harpen Ostenhellweg GmbH
Heywood Park Limited
Kernesk Limited
Ladyland Limited
Moreton Limited
Newbury (GP) Limited
Petersen Limited
Portwall One Limited
QBC Czech SRO
QDH Czech SRO
Racol Sarl
Sajola Sarl
Salado Enterprises Limited
Sheps (PHFL) Limited
Starcrest Limited
Talca Enterprises Limited
Tarnold Holdings Sarl
West Port Sarl
Westow Limited
Woolgate SA
Zeus Investments 1 SPRL
Zeus Investments 2 SPRL
555 NMA Investors LLC
Alpha Ceres GP LLC
Alpha Ceres REIT, Inc.
Beta Ceres GP, Inc.
Delta Ceres (STAP), Inc.
Gamma Ceres GP, Inc.
Zeta Ceres Capital, Inc.
Zeta Ceres GP, Inc.
Zeta Ceres New York LLC
Zeta Ceres REIT, Inc.
Zeta Ceres, Inc.
Anglo Irish Boston Corporation
Anglo Irish New York Corporation
Anglo Irish Chicago Corporation
10 South State Street Holdings LLC
10 South State Street Property LLC
Mainland Investments GP Inc
Mainland Ventures Corp
Project B Investor Limited Partnership
Project B Investor II Limited Partnership
MBB Investment Partners Limited Partnership
CWB Holdings Limited Partnership
CWB Hotel Limited Partnership
CWB Retail Limited Partnership
CWB Apartments Limited Partnership
Beta Ceres Limited Partnership
Gamma Ceres Limited Partnership
Zeta Ceres Limited Partnership
SEAPORT CPA Limited Partnership
10 South State Street Property Investor, Limited Partnership
Mainland Investments 625 NMA, Limited Partnership
TA Newbury Street Fund Investor, Limited Partnership
10 South State Street Property GP, LLC
Anglo Irish Equity Limited
Anglo Irish Private Capital Limited
Anglo Irish Leasing Limited
Berfors Nominees Limited
Finance 2000 plc
Clickinput Limited
CDB (UK) Limited
Anglo Irish Property Lending Limited
Anglo Irish Property Investors Limited
Anglo Irish Finance Limited
Anglo Irish Credit plc
Anglo Irish Commercial Properties (No. 1) Limited
Anglo Irish Commercial Properties Limited
Anglo Irish Carry Partner Limited
Anglo Irish Capital GP Limited
Anglo Irish Asset Limited
Anglo Irish Asset Finance plc
Amblepath Properties Limited
Argyle Investment Finance Limited
Anglo Irish Treasury Financing Limited
Anglo Irish GP Holdings Limited
Anglo Irish Property Investors GP Limited
Sutherland Finance And Leasing
Anglo Irish Covered Bonds Limited Liability Partnership
AALP Guernsey Limited
AALP Galashiels Limited
AALP England Limited
AALP Sunbury Limited
IFT Nominees Limited
CDB Investments Limited
Industrial Funding Trust Limited
Anglo Irish German Retail Limited
Soundbow Limited Liability Partnership
Anglo Irish Covered Bonds Finance Limited
Moorevale Investments Limited
Moorevale Investments (Brigade House) Limited
Carisbrooke Anglo Ventures Limited
Carisbrooke Property Investments Limited
Carisbrooke Properties Limited
Carisbrooke Properties (Barry) Limited
Carisbrooke Central Investments Limited
Carisbrooke Properties (Basingstoke) Limited
Carisbrooke Central Limited
GPF Investments Limited
Carisbrooke Lime Street Limited
Countryroad Investments Limited
Taurus Euro Retail Holding Sarl
Taurus Euro Retail Finance Sarl
Taurus Euro Retail Investment Sarl
T-R RE-Fund 1 GmbH
Monument Securitisation (CMBS) Limited
Monument Securitisation Holdings Limited
Monument MT No. 2 Limited
Monument Securitisation (CMBS) No. 2 Limited
Monument Securitisation Holdings No. 2 Limited

Cabinet Agendas January to July 2000

For some time now we have been seeking the Cabinet agendas for meetings from 1998, 1999 and 2000. We now have all agendas from April 1998 to July 2000. These records are available because of the 10-year rule in Section 19 of the FOI Act. This is the first time these documents have appeared in the public domain.

It should be noted that many of the industrial grants in these records have been redacted for commercial sensitivity reasons. I currently have an appeal with the information commissioner pending, arguing that since up to 12 years have passed since these meetings/grants took place, it is unlikely the records remain commercially sensitive.



Central Bank Commission appointees

Also worth noting was this:

As provided for in legislation, the terms of office of the first appointees will vary in length in order to ensure that future vacancies on the Commission will be staggered. The appointees and their terms of office are as follows:

Professor John Fitzgerald (5 years)
Mr. Max Watson (5 years)
Mr. Michael Soden (4 years)
Mr. Des Geraghty (4 years)
Professor Blanaid Clarke (3 years)

They will join the ex-officio members: Professor Patrick Honohan (Governor), Mr. Matthew Elderfield (Head of Financial Regulation), Mr. Tony Grimes (Head of Central Banking) and Mr. Kevin Cardiff (Secretary General of the Department of Finance) on the Central Bank Commission.

The Minister said:
“These appointments to the Central Bank Commission will bring a wealth and diversity of talent and experience to the Commission and represents a very significant step in the reform process.”

So, the usual suspects then.

Anglo failure would ‘bring down’ Ireland

So while I’m watching our opposition politicans debate the extension of the guarantee, news breaks on the Financial Times about information they were looking for earlier today. Deficit to reach 30%. Is that a record?

Dublin will on Thursday unveil a fresh recapitalisation of Anglo Irish and seek to draw a line under its banking crisis. But doing so will raise the cost of its taxpayer-funded bail-out of the banks to up to €35bn ($48bn) and lift the country’s fiscal deficit to a record expected to be as much as 30 per cent of gross domestic product

In an interview with the Financial Times, Brian Lenihan, finance minister, said Ireland had no choice but to act.

“Any Anglo failure would bring down the sovereign. It is systemically important not because of any intrinsic merit in the bank. But because of its size relative to the national balance sheet. No country could contemplate the failure of such an institution,” he said. As part of the new bail-out the finance minister will authorise the immediate transfer of Anglo Irish’s remaining €25.9bn in non-performing property loans to the National Asset Management Agency, the government body set up to house troubled assets from the banking crisis. At one swipe, the move will halve Anglo Irish’s size.

On Wednesday Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency, downgraded Anglo Irish’s subordinated debt by three notches to triple C and warned there was a “clear and present risk” of a restructuring of the bonds. Earlier this week, Moody’s Investors Service similarly downgraded the bank’s sub bonds, but also downgraded Anglo Irish’s senior bonds by three notches because of the “greater marginal risk” that the government would not support those creditors.

In anticipation that Allied Irish Banks may now be targeted by the markets, Mr Lenihan is separately expected to announce a further taxpayer injection of about €2-3bn to help the bank meet the regulator’s year-end deadline to raise €7.4bn. Announcements by Mr Lenihan and the financial regulator will seek to restore calm to the debt markets where Ireland’s cost of borrowing was again at near record levels on Wednesday.

So that means effective nationalisation for AIB. €5bn more for Anglo too. “The cost of its taxpayer-funded bail-out of the banks to up to €35bn”.

The NAMA saga continues

Long time readers will recall that this blog has been having something of a legal disagreement with both the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), and more recently our own Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information (OCEI). The saga has now been running for eight months, and looks set to continue for some time yet.

For new readers (and we see from our subscriber figures that there are many new readers) we should perhaps recall how this legal battle commenced. Back in February, realising that NAMA does not come under Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation – because our Minister for Finance decided not to prescribe it – we instead turned to that other arm of right to information legislation: the Environmental Information Regulations, or EIR for short.

We sent a request for information to NAMA, which was promptly refused on the basis that NAMA did not consider itself to be a public authority for the purposes of those regulations (SI 133/2007). We disagreed, citing that the Regulations stated that a body “established by or under statute” (and also that the board was appointed by the Minister) was a public authority, and therefore NAMA was a public authority. In disagreeing, we sought an internal review from NAMA. NAMA complied, and their internal review agreed with their original decision, that NAMA was not a public authority. We then appealed the matter to the OCEI, a sort of sister office to the Information Commissioner, and also headed by Emily O’Reilly. We also added a further submission to that appeal. Months passed, after which we received a letter from the OCEI – a preliminary decision which agreed with NAMA that it was not a public authority, and seeking our response. We then replied to that preliminary decision, as we were asked by the OCEI to do.

Last week we received a copy of NAMA’s reply to our response, and have been invited to make a further submission, in advance of a binding decision by the OCEI. This has actually become reasonably technical on a legal level – but we believe it is all really rather simple. The core argument (among two other significant arguments) is actually based on how one reads the legislation.

The legislation states:

“public authority” means, subject to sub-article (2)—

(a) government or other public administration, including public advisory
bodies, at national, regional or local level,

(b) any natural or legal person performing public administrative functions
under national law, including specific duties, activities or services in
relation to the environment, and

(c) any natural or legal person having public responsibilities or functions,
or providing public services, relating to the environment under the
control of a body or person falling within paragraph (a) or (b),

and includes—

(i) a Minister of the Government,

(ii) the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland,

(iii) a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Act 2001
(No. 37 of 2001),

(iv) a harbour authority within the meaning of the Harbours Act 1946
(No. 9 of 1946),

(v) the Health Service Executive established under the Health Act 2004
(No. 42 of 2004),

(vi) a board or other body (but not including a company under the Com-
panies Acts) established by or under statute,

(vii) a company under the Companies Acts, in which all the shares are
held—

(I) by or on behalf of a Minister of the Government,

(II) by directors appointed by a Minister of the Government,

(III) by a board or other body within the meaning of paragraph (vi), or

(IV) by a company to which subparagraph (I) or (II) applies, having
public administrative functions and responsibilities, and pos-
sessing environmental information;

Simple, right? One would think so, but NAMA doesn’t see it that way.

As far as NAMA is concerned, and indeed the preliminary view of the OCEI, it hinges mainly on what the words “and includes” mean. For us the legislation says:

a “public authority” means X and includes Y

where X represents the three types of public authority 3(1)(a)-(c) and Y is a list of bodies and categories of bodies i.e. 3(1)(i)-(vii). We believe NAMA clearly falls within the definition of 3(1)(vi). But NAMA reads parts (i) – (vii) as a subset of (a-c).

You could say we are at loggerheads on this one. And this actually goes beyond whether NAMA is or is not a public authority under this legislation. The disagreement here is so fundamental that it affects all other types of bodies that may or may not be public authorities under the same legislation. It is of fundamental importance to how this legislation is applied in the future, and could decide on how limited, or unlimited, the definition of public authorities becomes. Dozens of bodies could be included or excluded on the basis of how this legislation is interpreted.

Here is the letter from NAMA on this case:



A reply to this letter has already been drafted (with huge, indeed massive help from a reader of the blog), and we will publish it here once submitted. Should the OCEI find against us, and find that NAMA is not a public authority, our only recourse would then be to the High Court on a point of law.

The support of our readers, particularly those legal pros among you, is of course always appreciated.

Taoiseach’s diary 2004

As part of an ongoing process, the appointments diary of then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for 2004. Redactions marked ‘A’ are so because the department believes them to be “personal information” as defined in Section 28 of the FOI act. Entries marked ‘B’ relate to the Taoiseach’s private papers as a member of the Oireachtas. Regards ‘B’ redactions – the cover letter from the FOI officer states “Section 46 of the Act states, inter alia, that the Act does not apply to records relating to any of the private papers of a member of the Oireachtas and as such I consider that the Act does not apply to these entries.”



Previously:
Taoiseach diary April 1998 to March 1999
Taoiseach diary April to December 1999
Taoiseach diary 2000
Taoiseach diary 2001
Taoiseach diary 2005
Taoiseach diary 2006
Taoiseach diary May 2008 to May 2009

Dick Roche’s representations

Sunday Times journalist Mark Tighe has published some interesting documents concerning Minister of State for European Affairs, Dick Roche. The correspondence details Mr Roche making representations relating to a tender for patient transport services for the HSE. As Mark explains:

The Wicklow firm that Roche lobbied for is run by Pat and Irene Sweeney in Arklow. Pat Sweeney has been a town councillor in Arklow for Fianna Fail while Irene, his wife, ran unsuccessfully for Fianna Fail in last year’s local elections.

Roche wrote to Brendan Drumm, chief executive of the HSE, and the HSE’s board to criticise the “fundamentally flawed” HSE tender process for taxi services in which the Sweeney’s failed to win a contract.

Ms Sweeney was also appointed to the board of the EPA. Mr Roche claims to have been acting on behalf of constituents, but they are constituents who were clearly party political, and Mr Roche was trying to interfere in the tender process on their behalf. This type of behaviour from a politician is sadly, likely all too common – political loyalty above serving all of the people.



Breaking up Anglo

I’ve started re-examining the documents released by the Department of Finance in advance of the banking inquiry (remember that?). There are lots of interesting bits, and I will return to many of them. But here is one and it relates to the current events around breaking up Anglo – and the ideas of selling off deposit books mooted some time ago by some economists.

In September 2008, the Government was considering selling the deposit book of Irish Nationwide. Direct link here. In that month, there were four options listed:

1. Do nothing.
2. Ensure an orderly run-off of INBS
3. Break-up of INBS
4. Merge INBS with another institution.

None of these appear to have been acted on, but instead the entire building society, deposits and creditors, was guaranteed.

Merrill Lynch clearly advised that only senior creditors and depositors might be guaranteed, but this action would have clear dangers for sovereign credit ratings. Here is the passage.

Here is part one of the released DoF documents. I’ve marked each document using DocumentCloud. I hope to move away from using Scribd. To view the notes on the document you have to expand it to full screen using the button on the bottom left, or click the notes tab on the top.