Quinn: I’ll apologise if we lose case

Seán Quinn said he would apologise to the Irish public if his children lose their court case.

He also stated again that he has done everything possible to purge his contempt but the former tycoon said he could understand why people are critical of him and his family. “It is a democracy and we have to have respect that,” he said.

“I can understand where people are coming from and I know what they are saying.

“If a family is touching Government assets or the taxpayers’ assets, in these distressed times, I can understand why there would be anger with that.

“But our position is we don’t think Anglo own those assets,” he said on Shannonside FM yesterday, following his release on Thursday from the training unit in Mountjoy prison.

He had served a nine- week sentence for contempt of court but believes he can’t do anything else to purge his contempt. “I can be very, very unequivocal in that. There is absolutely nothing I can do to purge my contempt any further. We have done everything, every form, everything they have asked me to do I have done it. There is nothing further I can do and Anglo knows that.

“My credibility and my reputation is more important to me than the money,” the 66-year-old said. “If I am seen in one, three, five, 10 years that I have been telling lies to the courts and that I have moved assets and that we own these assets in foreign countries, then my reputation would be in tatters.

“If and when the children win their court case in a year or two’s time, when that’s done I think my reputation will be repaired to a large extent.

“But if I am seen to be telling lies and moving assets and didn’t try to purge my contempt then I would be seen in a different light.

“So I can make sure, I went in front of Judge [Elizabeth] Dunne and anyone who asked me and said I have not been involved in this business of moving assets apart from the first month or six weeks of March-April of 2011.”

Mr Quinn said he would apologise if he was found to be in the wrong. “I will apologise to the Irish public and so will all my family if the assets under dispute are found to be belonged to the Irish public and that they were taken legally by Anglo Irish bank.

“And that the receivership of the Quinn Group and the administration of Quinn Direct was done legally and correctly then we’ll apologise to the Irish public. But if it’s not, if it’s the other way around, who’s going to compensate me? Seán Quinn Jr and Seán Quinn Sr are after putting in months in jail.

“Why would Anglo and the Irish Government insist that these loans were proven before they started putting people in jail?”

He described, as “a national disgrace”, IRBC’s demolition of the Quinn Group and said he and his former companies were being used as scapegoats by both the Government and the bank.