State the ideal trouble-free tenant for cash-starved landlords
Latest figures from the Office of Public Works show the State is paying almost €117 million in rent every year to keep the show on the road.
Unsurprisingly, it’s some of Ireland’s best known property developers who are the recipients of the rent windfall.
Property tycoons such as Bernard McNamara and Liam Carroll are just some of the state’s landlords, with the taxpayers paying them millions every year in rent. This is on top of taking responsibility for loans which the pair have transferred to NAMA.
Various state agencies, Government departments and quangos always need a home and who better to provide it than the men who helped to build Ireland’s economic miracle, which has now turned into a nightmare?
One such property kingpin is Liam Carroll. Mr Carroll earns almost €8m on 17 leases he has with the state — his leases and rental bill having actually increased since January of last year.
An intensely private man, who rarely gives interviews, Liam Carroll was one of the biggest players in both the residential and commercial property markets during the Celtic Tiger.
In an ironic twist, he became one of the most well-known property developer casualties following the collapse of his Zoe group building empire last year with debts of €1.3 billion.
AIB is the largest lender to the Zoe group and it is estimated the bank is owed around €530m by the group.
Another well-known property developer who is also a landlord to the state is Bernard McNamara. Mr McNamara’s company, Belltrap Ltd, which he owns with fellow developer Jeremiah O’Reilly, earns €4.1 million for three leases to the Department of Justice and Law Reform, the Department of Social and Family Affairs and Revenue.
A Fianna Fáil councillor in the 1970s, Mr McNamara’s construction business became the third-largest in the country during the boom years through rapid and aggressive expansion. He hit the headlines earlier this year when he announced during a radio interview that he was “broke”.
His remarks came after the Commercial Court issued a judgment for €62.5m against him. The judgment was sought by a group of wealthy private investors who put money into the purchase of the Glass Bottle site in Ringsend in Dublin in 2006.
Mr McNamara has debts of around €1.5 billion with his loans now spread across NAMA, AIB and Anglo Irish Bank, as well Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and Ulster Bank.
In that surprisingly candid radio interview, Mr McNamara said it was “probable” he would lose his plush home on Ailesbury Road in Dublin.
“I’ve put all my assets on the line, including private residences, every damn thing I’ve had since I was a young fella. I’m not running anywhere. I’ll stand here and face whatever music there is,” he said of his financial troubles.
Another well-known Fianna Fáil man, who is a landlord to the state, is John Byrne, also a property developer.
Unlike Messrs Carroll and McNamara, Mr Byrne has survived the recession relatively unscathed and earns more than €5.7m on nine leases he has with the state. A friend of the late Charles Haughey, he appeared before the Moriarty Tribunal to say he had never given Haughey “a penny in his life, or a pound”.
Mr Byrne had been called to explain how more than €300,000 of his money found its way into bank accounts used by Haughey.
Mr Byrne grew up on a small farm in Kerry before moving to Britain where he made his money from dance halls. He returned to Ireland at the request of then-taoiseach Seán Lemass, who wanted offices built to help house an ever-expanding public sector. He is still obliging to this day.
Another man helping to house the Government is Larry Goodman who, ironically, is known for bringing down a government in 1992. Mr Goodman earns €3.7m from renting out the Setanta Centre in Dublin. One of his companies, Hazeldale, receives more than €1m for the use of 76-78 Harcourt Street in Dublin, while his firm, Halfpipe, receives €1.26m renting out space in 4-5 Harcourt Road, Dublin.
Larry Goodman has been one of Europe’s biggest meat processors since the 1970s but is mainly known for his involvement in the Beef Tribunal in the early ’90s. Mr Goodman was seen to have a very close relationship with the Haughey government in 1987, which was routinely accused of giving the beef baron favourable treatment.
Shortly after coming into office, the Haughey-led government agreed to underwrite a massive beef contract that Mr Goodman had secured in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
The contract was worth $134m and ministers backed the deal by giving Mr Goodman export credit insurance. In effect, this left the taxpayer exposed if Iraq chose to renege on the payments.
However, the IR£75m policy was cancelled by then PD leader Des O’Malley after he went into coalition with Haughey and Fianna Fáil.
While the fortunes of some of the state’s landlords have changed radically over the past year, one thing is for sure. When tenants are lacking and times are tough, the state will always need a home and will always be able to pay the rent on time.
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