Opinion

Public need to know ‘brown envelope' culture is over

Co Down businessman Frank Cushnahan
Co Down businessman Frank Cushnahan Co Down businessman Frank Cushnahan

EARLIER this month a couple of journalists sat in an editing suite at BBC Northern Ireland and watched Spotlight’s second exposé into the Nama scandal.

If anyone, post the Great British Bake Off, wonders about the value of our licence fee, please direct them to this programme.

Sitting in the dark room, scribbling madly and hoping I’d be able to read the dozen pages of notes once we left, I was struck by how ridiculous the property crash was.

Not for homeowners who were left with negative equity or others so in debt that they simply handed their house keys to their mortgage companies, but the developers themselves.

There was something terribly grubby about deals done in hospital car parks, about the handing over of wads of cash, and further secret meetings once it became clear the sale of Nama's northern loan book would be subject to a police investigation and Stormont inquiry.

It was never entirely clear why Co Down property developer John Miskelly gave £40,000 to businessman and then Nama adviser Frank Cushnahan, or why he gave him a further €10,000 in the lobby of Tughans solicitors’ firm in Belfast.

All he got was vague suggestions from Mr Cushnahan that he might be able to retain his properties without Nama’s knowledge.

Watching the programme it was hard to work out what was more disturbing: that Ireland still seemingly has a culture of cronyism and ‘brown envelopes’; Mr Cushnahan’s acceptance of the cash; or, as broadcast in later audio tapes, his apparent attempt to encourage Mr Miskelly to lie to police.

But in the end those secret meetings were moot. Mr Miskelly’s former properties and those of other northern developers taken over by Nama were sold anyway to US vulture fund Cerberus.

Mr Miskelly has said "payments made by me to any persons have been lawful”. Mr Cushnahan, who has denied any wrongdoing, said he cannot comment given an ongoing National Crime Agency (NCA) probe into the sale of Nama’s northern loan book.

Now a report by the Republic’s spending watchdog has found that the sale, known as Project Eagle, cost Irish taxpayers up to £190 million.

So the rush to sell Nama’s northern loans as one ‘lump’ wasn’t even the best deal. Of course Nama denies this but perhaps more damningly the Comptroller and Auditor General's (C&AG) report questioned the body’s approach to Mr Cushnahan himself.

Why, when Nama knew he was advising, on a ‘non-fee basis’ six Nama debtors and was linked to a seventh - representing around half the entire value of Project Eagle - did this not ring alarm bells?

Surely Nama should have, at the very least, considered if this was a conflict of interest? Tellingly, Nama’s response to the report did not include a defence of its handling of Mr Cushnahan.

Political pressure and the C&AG’s report has forced Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s hand. An statutory investigation is to be held into Nama - but to what end?

What can an all-Ireland inquiry really achieve, given that we do still have two different jurisdictions, two different justice systems and police forces?

The best that can happen is that information uncovered on one side of the border can be passed on to police on the other side. And recent history has shown us this is hardly an effective method.

Cronyism and brown envelope culture is partly what led the Republic into a bail-out which still affects people on both sides of the border.

It’s not a coincidence that the rise of independent TDs in the Dail has coincided with the public’s anger and disgust at a culture which led the state into economic meltdown.

Yet have things really changed in the years since the collapse? It’s too late now to recoup that £190 million for the Irish taxpayer.

It’s too late for people who lost their homes and businesses. What we really need is a culture shift.

Financial crimes tend not to grab the headlines but they often affect more people than violent offences ever will. The Nama scandal cannot and should not be brushed under the carpet.

Any investigations or inquiries must be kept free from political interference. Only through police probes and appropriate sentences for anyone found guilty will reassure the public that our brown envelope culture is over.