Michael O’Flynn: Nama has demonised my profession

Cork developer and Elysian builder Michael O’Flynn has controversially claimed Nama “demonised” his profession and insisted developers “did not cause” the crash.

The claim was made at two late-night bank inquiry hearings which saw another developer who had €2bn worth of his assets taken over by the taxpayer claim he is a “victim”.

Speaking to the cross-party body, Mr O Flynn said Nama is “failing” to get the best deals for the public and cannot distinguish between “part-time” developers and people like him “who knew what they were doing”.

The developer — who has left Nama — said if Government “zoned more land” this may have cooled the market and said he would have taken legal action had he known Nama wanted him to sell all his assets to pay off debts. He controversially said the group should have invested taxpayers’ money in his firms to help him grow funds and pay off debt as “that’s the nature of business”.

When asked, he said “I don’t believe the banking crisis was caused by developers”, said Nama has “demonised” his profession, pointed the finger at “amateurs” who called themselves developers but were not, and bluntly stated “we didn’t cause” the crash.

“We’ve taken a fair amount of criticism as a grouping, a lot of that has been caused by Nama demonising us from the outset, which is an extraordinary thing to do to us,” he said.

At an earlier meeting Ballymore Homes founder Sean Mulyran said he is a “victim” of what happened and denied political donations bought “influence” despite holding parties for Brian Cowen and Seán FitzPatrick and being close friends with ex-finance minister Charlie McCreevy.

Mr Mulryan said he knew in 2006 Ireland was building “30,000 houses more” a year than “housing needs” and pulled back from the Irish market from as early as 2001.

However, he said he was swept up because while 85% of his assets were abroad “90% of our loans were with Irish banks”.

The developer said the Irish crash occurred because “civil servants” and other unqualified people entered the developer market when “there was too much money chasing trophy sites” and told the inquiry he was “a victim” because he “didn’t anticipate” what happened.

When it was put to him that €2bn of his €2.4bn assets were taken over by the taxpayer through Nama, Mr Mulryan said he will “pay all of that back” — but declined to clarify if he will receive 10% of anything paid off as part of the Nama contract.

The developer confirmed to Labour senator Susan O’Keeffe that 55.5% of his 2001-2007 political donations were to Fianna Fáil, but said he also “gave to charities” and did not buy influence.

He later confirmed to Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty his connection to senior politicians and that he held parties at his home which saw Mr Cowen and Mr FitzPatrick attend —but insisted “hundreds” of people “including neighbours” attended.

The developers were the second and third to appear at the inquiry after one-time €10bn property holder Derek Quinlan,’s earlier appearance who claimed “I too lost” because he had to emigrate —to Switzerland, London and Abu Dhabi.

At an earlier hearing yesterday afternoon, ex-EBS CEO Fergus Murphy — who joined in January 2008 — said large loans were being given out by banks during the boom without evidence people had jobs and could pay the funds back. He confirmed it was a case of “stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” when asked.

Today, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Jobs Minister Richard Bruton, Tánaiste Joan Burton and former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte will all give evidence

.