McCreevy got €1.6m loan in 'deals for pals'
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Tuesday December 22 2009
FORMER finance minister Charlie McCreevy was among those to take advantage of the lax banking system, when he was given a €1.6m loan to buy a property worth €1.5m, it has been claimed.
Some politicians and developers could simply tell ex-Irish Nationwide chief Michael Fingleton how much they wanted and the cheques would be signed, an RTE Prime Time Investigates programme has alleged.
explosive
Mr Fingleton's former "right-hand woman" has made explosive claims that he ran the Irish Nationwide as though he owned it.
She says that fast-track loans were being processed every week for "well-to-do people" without paperwork, while ordinary customers were put through the full rigours of the banking law.
Whistleblower Olivia Greene claims that loans were provided for politicians with minimum paperwork and broke guidelines for the amounts that could be sanctioned. "Basically, they requested a mortgage, they were given a mortgage."
She also claimed to have intimate knowledge about a €40,000 loan given to Bertie Ahern's former partner Celia Larkin last year.
inquiry
The revelation came on the same night that Taoiseach Brian Cowen refused to set up an inquiry into the causes of the banking crisis.
Mr Cowen said that he did not want to "commit to a course of action before talking it out".
"That is the motivation behind my position -- not out of any sense of reluctance to ensure full accountability," he said.
At the same time, industry experts say that the building society was being "rough" with ordinary customers who ran into difficulty.
Mr McCreevy could not be reached for comment as he is out of the country until January 6.
kdoyle@herald.ie
- Kevin Doyle, POLITICAL REPORTER
