‘Inexperienced developers to blame’

A developer member of the Maple 10 group given money to buy shares in Anglo who previously claimed it was “hard to tell” if he was a billionaire, has blamed the “glut of inexperienced developers” seeking “a quick buck” for the crash.

Joe O’Reilly — who was one of Nama’s biggest clients but yesterday signed off on a €170m consortium bid involving the Abu Dhabi royal family to buy the sought-after Ballsbridge Hotel site — made the claim to the banking inquiry last night.

In evidence, the builder of Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre said too many people thought “a quick buck” could be made from development during the boom. He said “there was a perception development was easy” and too many “part-time developers” were coming in from different professions without the right “checks and balances”.