WTF? Developer gets elected for Wexford who owes €40,000,000

steddyeddy

Corruption in this country is a problem in my opiion however a bigger problem is the impunity some people here operate with. I dont agree with all of Wallace's economics but I admire his efforts in spreading the message that austerity wont work for society. He should resign for this and he should be investigated by the law. Hes not anything like the worst ie Haughey and his family and Bertie and his cronies but hes subject to the same law of the land as everyone else.

Forest Demon

For those who have not realised it yet, Cute Hoor = Self interested scumbag

As long as Irish people are greedy and individualistic they will continue to elect like minded politicians. We have seen it time and time again. Lets look up to the cute hoors. He will get things done. We need somebody like that. :rolleyes:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cute_hoor

Description

Noun
cute hoor (plural cute hoors)

(Ireland, slang) A shrewd scoundrel, especially in business or politics.

Usage notes

The term is not necessarily insulting, and can often be considered flattering. It does not carry sexual connotations in modern usage. Usually used to describe a male 'rogue'.

Qualitymark

steddyeddy wrote: »

Corruption in this country is a problem in my opiion however a bigger problem is the impunity some people here operate with. I dont agree with all of Wallace's economics but I admire his efforts in spreading the message that austerity wont work for society. He should resign for this and he should be investigated by the law. Hes not anything like the worst ie Haughey and his family and Bertie and his cronies but hes subject to the same law of the land as everyone else.

So name a few more currently serving who should also resign?

Latchy

He popped up a few times on BBC 2 Panorama programme a few weeks back on the topic of the austerity measures and how it's affecting all the countrys involved , with a section of the programme telling us how it all went wrong and interviwing politicians from various EU country .

Not knowing much about the man at first I thought it was some aging rock star been interviewed but he was spouting some ol shyte about how '' we Irish love to gamble on anything and everything and now '' how his buisness portfolio ,which was worth £70 million in the tiger days was now only worth £20 million '' .

Gummy Panda

This is what happens when you vote a scarecrow into power.

Seriously who in their right mind would vote in Worzel Gummidge

steddyeddy

Qualitymark wrote: »

So name a few more currently serving who should also resign?

Theres a lot more. A hell of a lot more. Fine gael were engaged in tax fraud for years. If I had my way half them would go because this country needs a major overhaul.

steddyeddy

Ill also say his mistake was getting caught.

Qualitymark

steddyeddy wrote: »

Ill also say his mistake was getting caught.

As I understand it, he didn't get caught, he went to Revenue himself.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Gummy Panda wrote: »

This is what happens when you vote a scarecrow into power.

Seriously who in their right mind would vote in Worzel Gummidge

Lol, he does look like a scarecrow now that you mention it.

steddyeddy

Qualitymark wrote: »

As I understand it, he didn't get caught, he went to Revenue himself.

Well as I said hes a lot better than most. He did apologise which puts him leagues ahead of haughey and the rest.

beco2010

did i hear this somewhere that he is off to the euro 2012 with his son and son's friend.
he has to go though because his son is only 18

Show Time

I never thought for a second the people in Wexford were as dumb as Kerry people for electing the pig farmer but there ya go.......

Joko

He stole €millions from the people of this country, but when a fellow developer owed him €20,000 he hired a hitman to get back his money. He is a lowlife.

Min

Show Time wrote: »

I never thought for a second the people in Wexford were as dumb as Kerry people for electing the pig farmer but there ya go.......

The pig farmer would be better in the Dáil than Mick Wallace.

DEFTLEFTHAND

In fairness to the people of Wexford I think Wallace falsely misrepresented himself to the electorate by standing for the Dail knowing at the time that he was guilty of a fraudulent offence.

Min

Joko wrote: »

He stole €millions from the people of this country, but when a fellow developer owed him €20,000 he hired a hitman to get back his money. He is a lowlife.

Not defending the man, but it was in the papers today he told the person he wanted the money paid or he would have a hitman out on him, he said he never was going to hire a hitman, but yeah, a lowlife and I believe his son was involved in the teacher bullying campaign in some school. He doesn't give good example.

Show Time

Min wrote: »

The pig farmer would be better in the Dáil than Mick Wallace.

The main problem in the country is that we have a bunch of farmers making all the important calls.

There are people in power in this country who would be locked up for their stupidity in most developed countries in the western world.

Qualitymark

Show Time wrote: »

The main problem in the country is that we have a bunch of farmers making all the important calls.

There are people in power in this country who would be locked up for their stupidity in most developed countries in the western world.

It is true; the inarticulacy of the debates in the Dail is horrifying.

Dáil Debate 2012
http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2012/06/07/00007.asp

House of Commons Debate (on Home Rule Bill, Irish deputies speaking) 1886
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1886/may/05/second-reading#S3V0305P0_18860505_HOC_11

Min

Show Time wrote: »

The main problem in the country is that we have a bunch of farmers making all the important calls.

There are people in power in this country who would be locked up for their stupidity in most developed countries in the western world.

If farmers were running the country maybe it would be a lot better, given farmers were not part of the Celtic tiger era in that their incomes did not rise and they provide something every human needs which is food.

We had Bertie leading the country and he is a city slicker and Bryan Cowen was not a farmer, nor was Brian Lenihan RIP, or Charlie McCreevy or the Greens or the PDs.

Farmers are producing a product that is in demand, not like the ones who thought we should be building houses and whatever else as if it was sustainable.

micropig

Show Time wrote: »

The main problem in the country is that we have a bunch of farmers making all the important calls.

There are people in power in this country who would be locked up for their stupidity in most developed countries in the western world.

I'll think you'll find it's mostly teachers;)

djPSB

It's no wonder the country is in ruins when the people of Ireland are electing crooks like this.

He's frauding the government of VAT, yet advising people not to pay the household charge.

Can't have it every way. The money has to come from somewhere. If businesses like his were paying their taxes, there would be no need for the household charge.

Qualitymark

djPSB wrote: »

He's frauding the government of VAT, yet advising people not to pay the household charge.

Isn't VAT meant to be paid monthly? Where was the VAT inspector?

micropig

Qualitymark wrote: »

Isn't VAT meant to be paid monthly? Where was the VAT inspector?

Shhhh! The Public sector are present and diligently doing their job in all corners.


This is private sector beef!:pac:

onemorechance

http://cache.tcm.ie/media/images/m/mickWallaceTD1.jpg
By Paul O’Brien, Political Editor
Saturday, June 09, 2012

Mick Wallace’s political foes take note: The tax-evading TD once threatened to set a hitman on a fellow developer who owed him money.
A 2005 interview has resurfaced in which Wallace, then enjoying massive success, told of his unorthodox approach to collecting debts.

In the Business & Finance interview, Wallace recounted how his company had once hired by a major developer, only to be short-changed to the tune of IR£20,000 (€25,000).

Legal action was proving frustratingly slow, and so Wallace decided he needed some extra help.

"So I knew of a guy [who] made a living out of a gun," he recalled in the interview. "I made contact with him and said: ‘Listen, there’s a guy owes me £20,000 — will you get it for me?’ He said he would give me £16,000 and keep £4,000.

...

Irish Examiner

Qualitymark

Here's the full piece, from Business & Finance in 2005:

http://www.businessandfinance.ie/index.jsp?p=413&n=427&a=2095


Mick Wallace's dolce vita
Developer Mick Wallace's motto is ‘Life is Short. Work Hard. Play Hard. Love Football.' He talks to Fearghal O'Connor about wealth, wine and replicating his Italian quarter around Dublin's working-class areas.

Brendan Behan would probably lament the lack of characters in post Celtic-Tiger Dublin. Yet he need go no further than his birthplace, Russell Street, in the shadow of Croke Park, to see that true originals still stalk the streets.

Wexford builder, wine importer and successful soccer coach Mick Wallace is bringing a little slice of his beloved Italy to a part of the north inner city that most developers only hurry through on their way to GAA matches.

Using his acclaimed Bloom's Quarter development on Lower Ormond Quay as a blueprint, Wallace is developing 80 apartments around a courtyard with a distinctly Mediterranean flavour. A similar development is underway in Inchicore. As in Bloom's Quarter, Wallace himself will run the Italian-themed cafés, grocers and wine bars to ensure authenticity.

Back in Ormond Quay, Wallace caresses a huge boardroom table in a plush office lined with rows of fine Italian wine. Despite the plush décor and the sundrenched view of the Millennium Bridge, nothing quite catches the eye like Wallace's bright pink Palermo football jersey.

"Building properly in two working-class areas with the same sorts of ideas we used here appeals to me greatly," he says. "Russell Street will be even better than this. It's going to be beautiful. People think I am mad doing proper building work beside working-class housing estates. But if I build rubbish houses up there, what am I going to do for the area? They are going to be seriously good apartments including 26 affordable units. I am going to build very well there but still make good money on it. I'm no martyr. I am running a business and I make sure it pays its way. I never lost money on a job in my life but I try to run it in an honest fashion."

To some, Wallace's ageing rock star appearance suggests otherwise. When the company was laying cobblelock for the City Council on South William Street, Wallace decided to do it himself to make sure it was done right. One evening, while he worked below, Tony O'Reilly came up the steps of a nearby hotel and was met by the manager. While chatting, the manager said to O'Reilly "do you see that fella with the long hair laying the cobbles? He actually owns that company." "My God," Wallace recalls O'Reilly answering, "imagine owning a company with hair like that."

Such a reaction was nothing new. Soon after Wallace started out on his own, a contractor gave him three pieces of advice. "Go to a tailor and get yourself a suit, go to a barbers and cut your hair, and join Fianna Fáil." He still hasn't done any of the three. "I wouldn't look great in a suit and I certainly wouldn't look good in Fianna Fáil," he explains. "If I really had to choose, I'd cut the hair."

Wallace has always known his own mind and was condemned from the altar in Wexford at an early age. After Mass, he would go to the sacristy and argue with the priest demanding to be allowed stand up in church and reply to his sermons. He wasn't let so he never went back.

Despite this rebellious streak, Wallace had a normal background. His parents ran a general merchant business in Wellingtonbridge, which his brothers still run today. After school, he studied history and English in UCD followed by a teaching degree.

"I couldn't afford to teach," he says. "There was more going for pushing a wheelbarrow. Having the education makes pushing a wheelbarrow much more pleasurable. Your mind is active and you contemplate the whole meaning of existence."

Nevertheless, he didn't spend too much time pondering what to do next. After learning blocklaying and carpentry, he began doing extensions and attic conversions. The business went from strength-to-strength. A contract to do a huge amount of street work for Dublin City Council made the company. Wallace redid entire streets - paving, furniture, lighting - across the city centre.

This steady income allowed him to start buying land in the late-1990s. He got a great deal on the Ormond Quay site, where he has since sold €15m worth of apartments. Not everyone believed he could make a success of it.

"I had my cap in hand begging the banks for money," he says. "It took me 18 months to get a bank to finance this and five refused me. I expected the AIB to finance it because I had a great relationship with them in Wexford for 15 years. I was brought into AIB headquarters to meet the top boys."

They said they would consider giving him the money on three conditions: that he pre-sell the apartments, that he let AIB appoint a bigger builder and that the bank would supervise the whole project financially and Wallace would pay for their supervisor.

"In all fairness," he said to them, "I realise that my hair might be a little bit too long for yiz and maybe you don't like the cut of me jeans. But I will raise goats on that land before I let somebody else build it."

If another bank had not come up with the cash, the north quays would be home to a thriving goat farm today. Wallace was always prepared to go the extra step to achieve his ambitions.

Some years ago, one of Dublin's biggest builders was given a stark example of this. Wallace did £170,000 worth of work for him but was only paid £150,000, a stunt the powerful builder was well-known for. After six months of legal action, Wallace's solicitor told him it would take two years to get to court and he'd be lucky to get £2,000.

"So I knew of a guy made a living out of a gun," he says. "I made contact with him and said ‘listen, there's a guy owes me £20,000 - will you get it for me?' He said he would give me £16,000 and keep £4,000."

"There was a guy working for the builder and I deliberately went for a pint with him," continues Wallace. "‘Did you hear I'm getting the money out of your boss?' I said to him. ‘I hired a hitman and he's going to get it. Don't tell anyone now.' Next day I got a phone call from the managing director. ‘Mr Wallace,' he says, ‘I believe there is a bit of a financial dispute on that job. Can we meet and talk about it?' I met them and they offered me £15,000. I said I'd take £16,000. Of course, I never would have dreamt of actually hiring the hitman. I only used him as leverage but it worked."

He admits that as a businessman he personally has done well out of many of the Government's policies. Nevertheless, he is not afraid to criticise what he sees as Fianna Fáil's dishonesty - most famously when he hung a massive banner on his Ormond Quay site imploring people to vote No to Nice.

"I wouldn't be as well-off if I worked in a socialist system but I do believe that corporation tax should be higher," he says. "The Government should put the priorities of the people ahead of those of business. I would praise the Government that does that even if it costs me more."

For now though, he is unlikely to be found in the Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway Races. Neither is he overly enamoured with many of his fellow developers who flock to it.

"More often than not, the developer is trying to make the maximum profit and he is not awful concerned about the finished product," he says. "It is whatever he can get away with. There are developers and builders who care but, unfortunately, too many who don't. There are a lot of really great planners in the City Council but they don't have enough control over the finished product."

For his part, Wallace is prepared to go to unusual lengths to achieve the finished product he desires. He was determined to create an Italian flavour at Bloom's Quarter so his company runs seven of the shops itself - two coffee shops, two wine bars, an Italian food shop and a clothes shop. He also gives temporary accommodation to a Communist Party of Ireland bookshop.

"Running wine bars and coffee shops is difficult," he says. "I wouldn't do it if I only took financial considerations into account. They are doing well but there is no money in it. I do it because to be honest I wanted to give something to the city in that line. Wine in this country is a terrible rip-off. 95% of the wine coming in here is factory wine. I am buying quality wine at a reasonable price direct from small Italian producers that I can trust. I go to the vineyards to taste the wines and meet the people, spend a few hours with them and get to know them. I wouldn't buy their wines if I didn't think they were honest. We are bringing quality wine to Ireland at a very affordable rate for the first time. Your average supermarket wine and a lot of the stuff available in restaurants is of very poor quality but the Irish are drinking it by the gallon."

He now owns a small vineyard in Italy and hopes to soon sell wine from it in Dublin. But it is not just Italian wine that he loves.

"I love their football for a start," he says. "I like the people, their passion, and it's the best place in the world to eat. I am passionate about food."

This love affair began when he visited the country for the World Cup in 1990. He never stopped going back and bought an apartment in Turin seven years ago. Apart from the vineyard, he has also set up a small building company in Italy - despite having to overcome incredible bureaucracy to get anything done.

Such business ties give Wallace the perfect excuse to regularly indulge his passion for Italian soccer. He tries to absorb as much as he can from the Italian game to bring it back to the Wexford Junior soccer team, which he coaches.

He has regularly taken his team to Turin for tournaments and special coaching. It has paid off - they have contested four all-Ireland finals in seven years and his influence has helped to turn the Wexford league into one of the biggest outside Dublin.

"At the moment I'm spending €1.5m on a football complex down in Wexford," he says. "Hopefully I will start a Wexford under-21 side next year or the year after."

He is often linked to takeovers of League of Ireland clubs such as Waterford United. "There's no League of Ireland club paying its way so if I did set one up it would have to be on an amateur basis," he says. "Running a professional League of Ireland club is impossible."

Somehow, though, it seems, the word impossible does not feature in Wallace's dictionary.

http://ie.linkedin.com/in/fearghaloconnor

mikemac1

Show Time wrote: »

The main problem in the country is that we have a bunch of farmers making all the important calls.

Yeah, because nobody wants to ruled by yahoos from the mountains

The country would be in better shape if farmers were running it

They know about managing cash flow and risk and investment and planning and it's one of few areas in Ireland doing well
What does a person in a permanent pensionable job know about these?


Kenny - teacher
Cowen - solicitor
Ahern - accounts assistant [though he says himself he was an accountant ]
Bruton - barrister
Reynolds - entrepreneur

There you, not far off two decades to find a risk taker and businessman who ran the country

Better to have a farmer in charge then a teacher

onemorechance

Qualitymark wrote: »

...

Soon after Wallace started out on his own, a contractor gave him three pieces of advice. "Go to a tailor and get yourself a suit, go to a barbers and cut your hair, and join Fianna Fáil." He still hasn't done any of the three. "I wouldn't look great in a suit and I certainly wouldn't look good in Fianna Fáil," he explains. "If I really had to choose, I'd cut the hair."

...

http://ie.linkedin.com/in/fearghaloconnor

:pac:

micropig

Qualitymark wrote: »

Despite this rebellious streak, Wallace had a normal background. His parents ran a general merchant business in Wellingtonbridge, which his brothers still run today. After school, he studied history and English in UCD followed by a teaching degree.

:pac::pac:

Calibos

Pre-election, as soon as I heard he owed the banks a few million my first thought was that all the talk of fighting for the little man against the elite blah blah was bullsh!t of the highest order and that this chancer was just trying to buy time against judgements from the Banks or Revenue. The Generous TD salary was just icing on the cake. He knew that as bankruptcy would mean a TD can no longer sit in the Dail, that the revenue or banks would baulk at the publicity of being responsible for a TD losing his seat and would delay coming after him or indeed not come after him at all till he lost his seat by ordinary means.

My cynicism has served me well. As soon as I read about the pensioners being evicted I smelled a rat and sure enough a few days later we heard about the 30 rental properties they owned. Ditto with the Sister buying her forclosed brothers house and giving the proverbial two fingers to the banks. Straight away I said that they probably hatched a plan to stop paying even a token amount on the mortgage, let the banks forclose and because they could poison the well for a potential buyer with the site access issues, the family could by the house back from the bank for a song. ie. I knew it was a stroke, despite they way the media were initially portraying it. Turns out it was even worse than I thought. The brother was a developer that owed a fortune to creditors but was living it up in Australia and can come back home and move into his swanky house mortgage free once he saves 60,000 to pay back his sister.

Honestly, what does it take for a fcuking TD to resign in this country!! MP's in the UK resign for letting a friend use a £100 House of commons transport allowance Rail voucher once....etc etc

NakedNNettles

Min wrote: »

If farmers were running the country maybe it would be a lot better, given farmers were not part of the Celtic tiger era in that their incomes did not rise and they provide something every human needs which is food.

We had Bertie leading the country and he is a city slicker and Bryan Cowen was not a farmer, nor was Brian Lenihan RIP, or Charlie McCreevy or the Greens or the PDs.

Farmers are producing a product that is in demand, not like the ones who thought we should be building houses and whatever else as if it was sustainable.

In fairness I think you're running away with yourself there.

I have great time for farmers but lets be honest the only two words they were concerned with during the boom years were 'ROAD FRONTAGE"