Quinns: Regulator should explain insurance move

Seán Quinn’s family have demanded the financial regulator be brought to task for his handling of Quinn Insurance — and defended the exorbitant price tag on the now infamous family wedding cake.

Ahead of yet another rally in support of him this weekend in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, Seán Quinn Snr’s daughter Colette Quinn and his sister Bernie Maguire last night gave an interview on the fallout from the Quinn family’s financial difficulties.

It was put to Colette Quinn that, due to the mismanagement of Quinn Insurance, a 2% levy for up to 25 years was going to have to be paid by taxpayers in the country.

“The family would like to see some sort of investigation into this call on the insurance compensation fund,” said Ms Quinn said during the interview on RTÉ’s Prime Time.

“At the time that we managed Quinn Insurance, it had the highest average reserve of any company in the UK and Ireland, it had the lowest loss ratio of any company in this country.

“Those are facts that can be verified by the financial regulator’s very own information.

“How we have gone from that situation to a situation we find ourselves in now is truly bewildering.”

She said the financial regulator had never shown anyone the information that he relied on to make the decision, adding that she knew “other concerned citizens” had requested it.

Bernie Maguire was asked if Peter Darragh Quinn should have gone to prison with his cousin Seán Quinn Jnr.

“I sympathise very much with Peter,” she said. “He was left in an impossible situation. He was asked to do things that physically he could not do and he was left with an impossible choice.

“He made a decision and I think he has to live with that decision. I don’t think anyone else can criticise or condone him for what he has done. It was very personal decision and he is going to live with it.”

On the furore over the reputed €100,000 cost of the wedding cake at Seán Quinn’s other daughter Ciara’s wedding in 2007, Bernie Maguire firstly said the cake was not that expensive.

She added: “That piece of information was leaked by Anglo through the Quinn Group in Derrylin. Why was it leaked? It was obviously leaked to blacken the Quinns in some way, to make people think they were greedy and selfish. It is assumed by a lot of people that a bride spends a full year’s salary on preparing for her wedding.

“At that particular time in 2007, the Quinns were earning €1m per week. So we have to put everything into perspective. We have to put it into the time and the family.”