Dublin Opinion

Miriam Lord finds Tim Collins’ evidence at the Mahon Tribunal less than credible. In fact, his statements explaining himself are completely laughable.

Tim is one of the now well-known back room boys who features in newspaper articles when journalists try to describe the power behind the throne, over in Bertie’s Drumcondra constituency office. Despite the reputation Collins suggests that he’s not that closely involved. While giving evidence last week he claimed to be “just a helper, in the general sense of the word”

Well, it is partly true. Although he controlled so much money for the party through the constituency office, he’s not actually an officer of the Dublin Central constituency organisation:

“He was a member of Fianna Fail, Mr Ahern said in evidence, but may never have signed up to the Taoiseach’s O’Donovan Rossa cumann, which today has only 20-25 members.”

So he says he’s not a significant player and even more modestly, that figures ‘are not my forte’. What is, playing The Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance?

But Collins’ ‘Forte’ comment drew a titter from the gallery. Was it the blatant false modesty that made them laugh? Probably it was because its well known that Collins has made a lot of money out of a number of high profile land deals in the last few years, the most spectacular of which involved the sale of the Oldbridge estate, purported to be the location of the Battle of the Boyne, from the McCann family (of Fyffes fame) to the Irish State in the late 90s. This netted the family, one of the most prominent business families in the state, a profit of 5 million Irish punts in less than two years and earned Tim Collins £250,000 – for his services – which was half of the 500,000 finder’s fee.

Not bad for someone for whom figures is not his forte.

However, the deal surrounding the Oldbridge site makes for a fascinating back story and puts his current evidence in much needed context. In circumstances like these, Collins and others in Fianna Fail are hoping that every one has a short memory, despite the fact that there’s plenty of information already out there.

So, what is the story with Collins and the sale of Oldbridge?

According an unnamed auctioneer speaking to the Sunday Business Post in September 2000 “Oldbridge has been on and off the market since 1989 when it was sold by the Coddington family for £800,000”.

Jody Corcoran, writing in the Sunday Independent in April 2001, also fills us in with some details about the attempts to develop it.

“A previous attempt to develop the site, involving former FF TD Liam Lawlor, political lobbyist Frank Dunlop and a 66-year-old convicted fraudster and thief from Malaysia is also being examined [by Flood]. Several unsuccessful attempts have been made since the late Eighties to develop the isolated Battle of the Boyne site. One such attempt was made by Lorrain Osman, the London-based former executive chairman of the Bank of Bumiputra. Mr Osman, a Chinese Malaysian, spent nine years is prison in London and Hong Kong after being accused of 39 counts of fraud and theft following the loss of $1,000m from the Hong Kong branch of the Bank of Bumiputra in what became known as the Carrian Investments scam.”

It seems strange that a scam artist should be interested in getting his hands dirty developing a site for the tourist industry, especially as there’s little hope that it could be developed.

Again, according to Sunday Business Posts unnamed auctioneer:

“It is virtually impossible to develop because it is bounded on three sides by the river. The estate can only be reached from the main road by a one-lane metal lattice bridge and a hump-backed canal bridge which was built for carts.”

However, whatever the reasons for the interest, the McCann family bought it in 1997 for £2.7 million.

Just in time it seems, for the peace process. Again, according to Judy Corcoran in the Irish Independent, this time from 2006:

“In 1997, the Battle of the Boyne site was bought for €3.4m by the McCann family, who control Fyffes, the giant fruit import company. They formed a separate company to own the land, Deepriver Ltd, of which Tim Collins had 12.5 per cent of the shares.
A month after the McCann transaction was completed, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Andrews, announced that the Government planned to develop the Battle of the Boyne site as part of the peace process.

Negotiations to purchase the site on behalf of the State began, and were concluded in 2000, at a cost to the taxpayer of just under €10m.

That tax bill of almost €1m was instead paid by the OPW when it wound up Deepriver some years later.”

How did they manage that? Well, its Collins at work again:

“Mr Collins and the McCanns then managed to substantially reduce their tax liability arising from the sale. They did so by selling to the State the company which owned the lands as opposed to the lands themselves. According to Mr F Glavey, director of audit at the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, “The purchase of the company was at the behest of the vendor as it resulted in estimated tax saving of £920,000 (€1,168,000) for the company shareholders relative to a direct sale of the lands to the Office of Public Works.”

So they managed to earn a profit of five million in less than two years and to save one million on the tax liability – both at the tax payer’s expense.

Of course the Battle of the Boyne has huge historical significance, especially for Unionists, right? After all there was that historic recent visit to the site by Ian and Bertie:

“The two men toured a multi-million euro restoration project at Oldbridge House, close to the battle site, and planted a walnut tree. The DUP leader said the symbolic gesture was an indicator of a good future.”

Except that Ian never considered this to be the real location of the Battle of the Boyne. Again, based on the 2000 Sunday Business Post article:

“The Orange Order has never used the Oldbridge estate to the south of the Boyne as a place of commemoration. Traditionally, a 29-acre field on the north bank where King William was wounded and where his elite Dutch Blue Guards marshalled has been regarded as the memorial site.

The order erected an 90-foot obelisk there in 1890 and paraded annually until 1923, when the IRA blew up the memorial.

More recently Orangemen and other unionists, including Ian Paisley Jr, have attended some low-key events in this field, which is known locally as the Battle of the Boyne site.

In 1985 Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich, a noted historian, identified the site for Irish-American millionaire James Delaney and later turned the first sod for a theme park development which was abandoned due to lack of funds. It is still marked with a 30-foot sign erected by Delaney which proclaims it the site of the battle.

The OPW has confirmed that the traditional site was not considered. Only two properties were examined, the Oldbridge estate and 70 acres of land further west. An OPW spokesperson said both properties belong to the same owners. Money for the estate and a derelict manor house will come from the Millennium Fund, the EU and direct government funds.”

What is also curious is that when announcing the purchase, Bertie made his statement directly to the media not in the Dail. Perhaps more significantly though, he initiated the purchase himself. Again, from the 2006 Indo article:

“It can also be revealed today that moves to purchase the site were personally initiated by Mr Ahern, who had his advisers, including the now Senator, Martin Mansergh, raise the issue with the Office of Public Works.

Files seen by the Sunday Independent show that Mr Ahern had at all times kept himself fully briefed on developments in relation to the State’s purchase of the site.”

What are we to conclude from this? A site of land that may or may not be of historical significance but which is isolated and virtually useless as a tourist destination still manages to attract the attention of a swindler who has no history of developing tourist sites in Ireland, but lots on how to make money quickly and illegally. It is then bought up by one of the richest families in the state a few months before Bertie Ahern personally decides that the Irish state should buy the historically dubious site as a political gesture to Unionists - who have shown no interest in the site itself previous to this - knowing that one of his closest and oldest friends, Tim Collins, would gain financially from the deal, and knowing also that other associates within his party would give the family a price high enough to ensure the resulting commission would be significant enough to make the effort worthwhile.

At the same time, that close friend and associate negotiates with the OPW not to buy the land but to buy the company set up by the family that bought the lands, thus save it up to a million in its tax bill, basically turning the sale into pure profit at the tax payer’s expense.

Now we have Mr. Collins answering questions on Bertie’s finances with which he clearly has intimate dealings and although all the information about him is in the public domain he still thinks he can get away with saying ‘figures are not my forte’.

There’s only thing we can conclude from this. Bertie, like Charlie Haughey before him, thinks that it is acceptable to use the mechanism of government for personal gain. Nothing changes then.