Ireland

Ronan Ryan and his former Miss Ireland wife, Pamela Flood, had never heard of the personal insolvency regime when they both signed a consent agreement to give back their Dublin home to so-called vulture fund Tanager, the High Court heard today, BreakingNews.ie reported. Ryan had appealed against Judge Jacqueline Linnane’s Circuit court order allowing Tanager re-possess 136 Mount Prospect Avenue, Clontarf, even when he had insolvency court protection from every one of his creditors.

A Co Antrim property developer who claims he lost more than £1 million (€1.13 million) during the recession has begun a High Court action against the Ulster Bank, The Irish Times reported. Chris Gordon alleges fraudulent misrepresentation and negligence around the provision of financial services and banking arrangements over a number of years. Mr Gordon, who also operates as an estate agent, is seeking damages over the handling of his business dealings.

Almost two-thirds of voters have said they would be willing to forgo budget tax cuts at a time of rising fears over the economic cost of a no-deal Brexit, The Irish Times reported. According to the latest Sunday Business Post/Red C opinion poll, just 39 per cent said they wanted tax cuts and/or social welfare increases that benefit them personally. Instead, 61 per cent said they would prefer the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe to invest more in public services in next month’s budget, at a time of public housing shortages and long health service waiting lists.

Property developers, medical doctors and publicans were prominent among the 43 names published today on the tax defaulters list, which outlined details of €9.8 million worth of settlements in the three months to the end of June, The Irish Times reported. The list of names published by Revenue represents just a fraction of the €118 million collected in settlements during the period as a result of interventions, audits and investigations by the tax authorities, it said. Details of cases involving court penalties totalling more than €1.1 million were also published.

Gayle Killilea’s lawyer is asking the judge in her husband Sean Dunne’s American bankruptcy trial to block an order from a different court compelling Killilea’s financial adviser to provide details of the couple’s finances, including the transfer and sale of Walford – once Ireland’s most expensive home, The Irish Times reported. Trustee attorney Timothy Miltenberger said his client wants to examine Dublin accountant James Ryan to identify assets to pay the $18.1 million (€16.2 million) a jury ordered Ms Killilea to pay the trustee in June.

A High Court judge has said he would approve a debt write-off of about €3 million for musical director Frank McNamara and his wife Theresa Lowe, the former RTÉ presenter, The Irish Times reported. However Mr Justice Denis McDonald has sought further clarification first around the true value of Mr McNamara’s inheritance of his parents’ home and rental income on the property, which will go towards repaying some of the couple’s debts, before he signs off on their proposed personal insolvency arrangements.

The Government has seen almost €6 billion wiped off the value of its stakes in the three surviving bailed-out banks in the past year, leaving a notional shortfall in its aim to recoup their rescue costs during the financial crisis, The Irish Times reported.

Green Reit, Ireland’s first real estate investment trust, is to be sold to London-based property investment group Henderson Park in a €1.34bn deal that underlines the slowdown in the country’s commercial property market after a period of strong growth, the Financial Times reported. Green was floated six years ago as a recovery began in the Irish property market, which had been knocked by the financial crash of 2008.

Sports Direct has won the bidding war for Jack Wills, adding yet another brand to Mike Ashley’s high street empire, The Irish Times reported. Advisers at KPMG said Jack Wills had been put into administration on Monday and was immediately sold to Sports Direct in a process known as a pre-pack administration. The retailer has a small number of stores in the Republic, including on Grafton Street, at the Dundrum Town Centre and at Kildare Village.

Harland and Wolff, the historic Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic, is racing to find a buyer to avoid collapsing into administration as workers called on Boris Johnson to intervene to avert its closure, the Financial Times reported. Workers locked themselves inside the gates and warned they would not leave until a resolution is found to enable the 158-year-old yard to remain open. The collapse of one of Britain’s oldest shipyards would be likely to raise questions about the government’s national shipbuilding strategy.