‘I just needed extra bit of money’

HALF a century after he left the gardaí, John O’Leary still regrets taking the £89 he was offered in lieu of leaving his pension contributions with the force.

But it was 1954 and he needed the money to pay his passage to England where he had hopes for a prosperous future. He did all right, getting a modest job with Beechams, but his only pension now comes from Britain and it’s a pittance, especially with the decline in sterling.

That’s why, five years ago, he began taking whatever small savings he could muster and putting them into Anglo Irish Bank shares. Yesterday the 85-year-old from Cobh, Co Cork, all but accepted those shares were worthless.

“Everything I read about them, everything I heard about them made them out to be a sound investment. I wasn’t greedy. I didn’t expect to make a fortune. I just needed to make an extra bit of money to provide for myself. You have to take responsibility for yourself and that’s all I was trying to do.”

John was delighted when the shares soared in value but just wishes there had been some warning that a catastrophic fall was ahead. “If I had withdrawn them a year ago, I could have got a lovely luxury cruise around the world — not that I would have spent them on that,” he says. “But now I’m lucky to get up to Dublin for this meeting.”

John was just one of around 50 shareholders who put questions to bank chairman, Donal O’Connor at yesterday’s meeting.

Senator and shareholder Shane Ross’s contribution was a particular crowd-pleaser, as he accused the board members of hiding behind the chairman in refusing to take questions and queried why auditors, Ernst & Young, were not made available to the meeting to explain how former chairman Sean FitzPatrick’s undeclared loans escaped their notice.

“It is absolutely extraordinary and it must baffle you how these guys in Ernst & Young missed this,” he told the board. “This is a catalogue of extraordinary disasters.”

He also demanded to know the full scale of the bank’s as yet undisclosed bad debts, saying he suspected they were the real reason behind what he called the “panic nationalisation” of the bank while the furore over FitzPatrick’s behaviour was a red herring.

“We are getting an excuse. The real problem has been that you are presiding over a cowboy bank.” He drew loud support for his call on the board to resign en masse, excluding newcomer Mr O’Connor and the two government-appointed representatives, Alan Dukes and former Revenue chairman, Frank Daly.

Many shareholders questioned what their current status was and what prospects they had of being recompensed for their now near worthless shares. Mr O’Connor said he believed the 20,000 shareholders remained owners of the bank until the Government passed the necessary legislation to formally complete the process but his reply was not definitive.

He also said he did not know the details of any compensation scheme but said the Government had assured him shareholders would be treated fairly.

Retired construction worker and shareholder, Peter Larkin from Bray, Co Wicklow, questioned why no Government representative was at the meeting. “The very fact that there is no representative here today, even just to listen to us, is an indication that their idea of fair is different to most peoples’.”

Retired couple, Anne Louise and Charlie Moore, both aged 69 and living in Tullow, Co Carlow, said priority should be given to old age pensioners’ dividends in deciding how to continue the bank’s business.

Anne Louise has multiple sclerosis and said she couldn’t live on the state pension alone so the dividends from her investments were crucial. “We do have other shares but unfortunately they are in other banks and they are not doing well either.”

Among the others in attendance were broadcasters Eamon Dunphy and Gay Byrne.