A lot of debt but little relief

James Reilly owes his former business buddies a fortune — and still owes the rest of us an explanation.

There was plenty of debt but not much relief in his terse 10-minute statement to the Oireachtas late last night.

After returning from his mission to sun-drenched Cyprus it had taken the health minister four hours to get from Dublin Airport to standing up in Dáil Eireann — FYI Jimmy: the 747 bus only takes 30 minutes and is a snip at six quid if you’re short of a few bob.

But then you’re not really, are you? There’s that stately home, all the other property, and the nice little earners — indeed one could say you are the Mr Flush of Lusk.

So how comes he became the first sitting Cabinet minister to end up in that debtor sheet of shame the Stubbs Gazette — its very name conjuring up Dickensian imagery of down-at-heel shabbiness?

It is all due to “complex litigation”, apparently. And anyway, it is all going to be sorted out “soon” — he hopes. So why worry?

The rather haughty personal statement, finally delivered at just before 10pm, meant he did not have to take any questions — but they continued to hang heavy in the night air.

Such as why exactly Dr Debt and his business pals have failed to comply with a High Court order to repay money to other investors in a nursing home scheme.

“Complex litigation” — apparently.

But, it doesn’t look good does it, the health minister appearing on a list of defaulters for a €1.9m unpaid debt? Especially when the health service under his command is heading for an overspend of some €500m this year — and nobody in Government seems to have any idea what to do about it. It seems Dr Debt is not very lucky with numbers at all.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said it was “preposterous” for Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams to imply there was a conflict of interest when a health minister was shutting down so many public beds for the elderly while he had financial interests in a firm which provided private ones.

But, again, it does not look good, does it?

Dr Debt insists there is no conflict of interest at all — just his “single interest” to help the elderly.

Sounded like he thought the elderly should be in his debt — but that’s a bit tricky when the health minister is so publicly in the debt of others.

The reaction from Dr Debt’s own benches was noticeably muted — they do not believe this self-inflicted injury is terminal at the moment, but realise his rather vague diagnosis of how we got here is not going to make the pain go away any time soon.

The deal

James Reilly and 12 others became involved in the project to build the Greenhills nursing home in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, back in 2000.

Each invested £60,000 of their own money, apart from one who invested £30,000. A further €1.95m was borrowed from Bank of Ireland to develop the 54-bedroom home.

The group signed a lease agreement with one of the syndicate members, Dilip Jondhale, who would pay them rent and operate the home.

It was agreed that after 10 years, Dr Reilly and four others would buy out the eight investors for €1.95m — and release them from liabilities to Bank of Ireland.

But this did not happen and ended up in court in February. Dr Reilly and the four others consented to a judgement for €1.9m being entered against them, meaning they agreed that they owed the money.

A deadline was set of the end of April for payment and the judgment was entered “jointly or severally”, meaning the creditors could pursue just one debtor, for example Dr Reilly, for the entire sum owed by all five.

— Mary Regan