‘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”.

Mr O’Reilly insisted his firms Castletown and Chartered Land are “not in the business of making a quick buck and disappearing”.

However, despite defending senior members of the profession like himself, he faced criticism and blame for the crash.

Asked by Fine Gael TD John Paul Phelan if it was “sensible” for him to have taken out €1.5bn in loans from Anglo alone and if this high-level indebtedness — not small time developers — pushed Ireland over the fiscal cliff, Mr O’Reilly said “you have to look at the quality of our assets”.

After an incredulous Mr Phelan asked “are you really saying” smaller new developers were more responsible for what happened than those with such significant loans, Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty noted Mr O’Reilly was one of a number of developers with “multi-bank” loans from institutions at the same time.

Quoting from previous evidence given by economist David McWilliams, Socialist TD Joe Higgins said “the Irish property market is a scam” and a “vacuous confidence trick”, noting the comment was made in 2003 when the boom was still growing.

After being asked “did it not give you pause for thought”, Mr O’Reilly said property prices at the time were “unsustainable” but stressed “we didn’t borrow from the Irish taxpayer” — just subsequently nationalised banks.

Mr O’Reilly was one of the Maple 10 group given money to buy Anglo loans in 2008, and at an Anglo court case last year said it was “difficult to tell” if he was a billionaire during the boom.

He told Independent senator Seán Barrett the “biggest mistake” of the boom was “joining the euro” because “we lost control” and “didn’t seem to put in place any measures to control inflation”.