I’m just another human being who is very far from being perfect

Edited version of Mick Wallace’s statement:

In relation to my company’s under-declaration of Vat in 2009, M&J Wallace Ltd sold apartments in ’08 and ’09 and the proceeds from the closings of the sales were pledged to the bank. Normally, the business cashflow would have allowed us to deal with the Vat liability, but not on this occasion.

In early ’08, the company had got the go-ahead to build a large project on North Circular Rd, which gave confidence in its potential to go forward. Towards the end of the year, the bank pulled the plug on the project. This meant serious and unforeseen cashflow problems for the company.