Ivan Yates confirms Newstalk exit

Breakfast presenter Ivan Yates has confirmed he is to leave Newstalk as of July 1, but denied that the move relates to his wife’s financial difficulties.

The station said that the former agriculture minister is also stepping down from his role as a presenter on TV3 and as a columnist with the Irish Independent. It said the move was for personal reasons.

A statement on his own behalf said Mr Yates had told Newstalk of his plans in March 2015 and that he was taking a year’s sabbatical.

He said his and his wife’s plans after that were “unclear”.

Last February, Mr Yates’s wife Deirdre asked the High Court not to give AIB a summary judgment order against her for €1.6m.

The debt arose out of a guarantee Deirdre Yates gave on loans obtained from AIB to her husband for his Celtic Bookmakers business which went into liquidation in 2011.

However, the court rejected Ms Yates’s defence that she did not realise the guarantee would give the bank the right to pursue her for her family home in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.

The court ruled she had no defence to AIB’s case and granted judgment for €1,648,147.

Mr Yates called the bank vindictive for pursuing his wife and said the action was pointless as the teacher had no assets to hand over.

Yesterday, he denied his wife’s financial difficulties were behind his departure from the media.

Mr Yates also denied he was returning to Wales where he moved in 2012 and lived for 16 months to avail of UK bankruptcy laws.