Gilmore's wife made some dosh from the property boom..

Tim Robbins · 01-11-2010 09:02PM #1

This has bound to be a little bit embarrassing for the Labour party. All those rants about the greedy people who made so much money during the boom won't sound so catchy...

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gilmore-wife-got-euro525000-for-school-site-now-worth-just-euro100000-2402122.html

Discuss...

RichardAnd · 01-11-2010 09:57PM

I don't really see the problem with this. Many people made money from the boom who still have it, you just never hear of these people as they were wise enough to quite whilst they were ahead. So mrs Gilmore made some money, well done to her.

McNulty737 · 01-11-2010 10:27PM

His own deputy leader -- finance spokeswoman Joan Burton -- last year hit out at "property tycoons" who made "a mountain of money" from selling school sites.

So according to his own deputy, lefty labour leader eamon gilmore is a property tycoon who made a mountain of money from selling a school site? Brilliant!

Zynks · 01-11-2010 10:54PM

Talk about selective interpretation. The guy's wife inherited the land and had an opportunity to sell it, which she did. I didn't see any suggestion that the price at the time was not fair.

From that to Gilmore being a property tycoon there is quite a distance.

McNulty737 · 01-11-2010 11:00PM

I'm not the one calling him a propery tycoon....it's his own deputy that is suggesting that gilmore made a mountain of money from the property bubble.

Gilmore loses some moral authority when it comes to criticising bankers and property developers over this, especially considering that his own wife fleeced the taxpayer for a few hundred thousand grand over some ridiculously overpriced land.

dixiefly · 01-11-2010 11:01PM

I wonder whether the fact that she is chief executive of Dun Laoghaire VEC had anything to do with the purchase.

Hopefully everything was up front.

Good article here

John Downes and Neil Callanan

Eamon Gilmore with his wife Carol Hanney: sold family landTHE wife of Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore sold a two-and-a-half-acre school site in east Co Galway to the state for €525,000, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

Details of the transaction between the Office of Public Works and Carol Hanney, who is chief executive of Dun Laoghaire VEC, emerged after this newspaper revealed earlier this month that the Department of Education spent more than €190m on sites for schools between 2005 and 2009.

According to conservative estimates provided by property experts, the most the state should have expected to pay was €25m if advance school-planning had been properly designed.

A spokeswoman for the Office of Public works (OPW) confirmed it acted on behalf of the Department of Education in the purchase of a 2.5-acre school site for a national school in Killimor, which is close to Loughrea, from Hanney.

The sale, for €525,000, was agreed in 2006 and completed in June 2007.

"All sites purchased by the OPW on behalf of the Department of Education are subject to a valuation being carried out," the OPW spokeswoman said. "The commissioners' valuer inspected the site and advised that the agreed price was reasonable."

Gilmore told the Sunday Tribune he had "no involvement" in the sale process, but did not comment on the price achieved for the sale.

"[Carol] had been approached a number of years earlier by the board of management of the school, who were interested in the site because of its location in the village," he said. "The site was part of land surrounding the family home, which Carol inherited from her late mother. The site was sold in response to a public advertisement seeking land for the school. The price agreed was that for which the land was professionally valued at the time."

However, the revelation could prove embarrassing for Gilmore, amid serious concerns about the extent to which the state paid 'boomtime' prices for school sites around the country.

Among the other major beneficiaries of school-site land purchases between 2005 and 2009 were well-known property developers such as Joe O'Reilly of Castlethorn, Joe Moran's Manor Park homebuilders, and Séamus Ross of Menolly Homes.

Cavehill Red · 01-11-2010 11:05PM

So the school asked for the property, Mrs Gilmore put it up for sale and received market value.

Sorry, but I'm not seeing any scandal here?

Is there any suggestion of brown envelopes involved?
Is there annoyance that the state has done nothing with the land since purchasing it other than watch it decline in value?
In short, what exactly is the story here? I don't see one at all, other than a vague attempt to smear Gilmore.

Dob74 · 02-11-2010 12:01AM

Tim Robbins wrote: »

This has bound to be a little bit embarrassing for the Labour party. All those rants about the greedy people who made so much money during the boom won't sound so catchy...

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gilmore-wife-got-euro525000-for-school-site-now-worth-just-euro100000-2402122.html

Discuss...

So what is the problem exactly?

The spindo is trying to make a scandal out of nothing.
525k at boom time prices is hardly an outrages price.
Now if Gilmore had got rezoned for 200 apartments there maybe something there.

Since Gilmore's wife's finanical dealing are now open to the public, how about releasing info on the NAMA loans.

kippy · 02-11-2010 12:08AM

I dont like the whole, that land is worth 50 grand now BS - thats not really the point, however I'd be interested to know how big the parcel of land is, I couldnt find it in the article.
Over a half a mill for a piece of land outside a small village in Galway county seems like a lot of cash - even in the boom times........esp for a non preferred site.

I dunno, theres a thread on this elsewhere and one poster summed the whole thing up very well.

Dob74 · 02-11-2010 12:08AM

McNulty737 wrote: »

I'm not the one calling him a propery tycoon....it's his own deputy that is suggesting that gilmore made a mountain of money from the property bubble.

Gilmore loses some moral authority when it comes to criticising bankers and property developers over this, especially considering that his own wife fleeced the taxpayer for a few hundred thousand grand over some ridiculously overpriced land.

The spindo also failed to point out the former councilor Michael Reagan is a former FF councilor.

Valuation

Zaph · 02-11-2010 12:15AM

kippy wrote: »

I dont like the whole, that land is worth 50 grand now BS - thats not really the point, however I'd be interested to know how big the parcel of land is, I couldnt find it in the article.
Over a half a mill for a piece of land outside a small village in Galway county seems like a lot of cash - even in the boom times........esp for a non preferred site.

I dunno, theres a thread on this elsewhere and one poster summed the whole thing up very well.

dixiefly wrote: »

A spokeswoman for the Office of Public works (OPW) confirmed it acted on behalf of the Department of Education in the purchase of a 2.5-acre school site for a national school in Killimor, which is close to Loughrea, from Hanney.

If it was sold in Dun Laoghaire for a VEC school there then there'd be a story, but it was over the other side of the country and she was approached about the land. Usual nothing story from the gutter press imo.

padrepio · 02-11-2010 03:02AM

FF's buddies in Sindo trying to rake up Sh*t on an opposition leader. Not really a surprise. Are we going to have an expose on everyone who sold land to the State at a time when the market prices were exorbitant? Thought not.

kaiser sauze · 02-11-2010 03:12AM

Oh jeez, a person sells some land at a professionally valued price and makes money?

Next.

TheUsual · 02-11-2010 03:44AM

Ha ha !

Serves him right the champagne socialist. Next time I see him with an angry red face on TV I will just laugh.

SkepticOne · 02-11-2010 04:48AM

McNulty737 wrote: »

I'm not the one calling him a propery tycoon....it's his own deputy that is suggesting that gilmore made a mountain of money from the property bubble.

Gilmore loses some moral authority when it comes to criticising bankers and property developers over this, especially considering that his own wife fleeced the taxpayer for a few hundred thousand grand over some ridiculously overpriced land.

It's not the clever ones that made money out of the boom that are the problem. It is the dumb ones: the ones who borrowed billions of other people's money from the banks even after the market had turned and now can't pay the banks back. Also the banks that lent it to them. The dumb ****ing idiots. These are the people the country is bankrupting itself in order to bail out.

smellslikeshoes · 02-11-2010 05:13AM

Don't see any problem with it, she sold at the market value of the land. She didn't force the department to buy it or anything.

kippy · 02-11-2010 08:07AM

Zaph wrote: »

If it was sold in Dun Laoghaire for a VEC school there then there'd be a story, but it was over the other side of the country and she was approached about the land. Usual nothing story from the gutter press imo.

525K+ for 2.5 acres of land in East Galway.
Does anyone think that was (even at the time) well above the market price?

Okay, fair enough, people think there is a conspiracy here to knock Labour.
I would like to see the INDO spend as much time investigating our other politicians and their property interests.

efb · 02-11-2010 08:10AM

I'm sure if it was Mrs Cowen the OP et al would have no issue with it!

All our public reps are entitled to be scrutinised- including their spouses!

02-11-2010 10:06AM

It's definitely fishy. Someone selling land to their own department at the peak of the boom when everyone and their dog knew that everything was going down the toilet. Her land wasn't the first choice either as far as I've heard, and as for it being publicly advertised... I'd love to hear the details of how that happened.

Deals like this should most definitely be illegal, and the fact that they aren't says a lot about this country. At the very least it's entirely inappropriate.

professore · 02-11-2010 10:12AM

Rojomcdojo wrote: »

It's definitely fishy. Someone selling land to their own department at the peak of the boom when everyone and their dog knew that everything was going down the toilet. Her land wasn't the first choice either as far as I've heard, and as for it being publicly advertised... I'd love to hear the details of how that happened.

Deals like this should most definitely be illegal, and the fact that they aren't says a lot about this country. At the very least it's entirely inappropriate.

I agree. She should have to declare a conflict of interest at the very least.

Tim Robbins · 02-11-2010 10:30AM

Zynks wrote: »

Talk about selective interpretation. The guy's wife inherited the land and had an opportunity to sell it, which she did. I didn't see any suggestion that the price at the time was not fair.

From that to Gilmore being a property tycoon there is quite a distance.

Oh yes and it was those nastys in FF that didn't want legislation which limited the prices you could get for land.

I expect all we hear from Labour is double think and they'll expect this story to go away.

Tim Robbins · 02-11-2010 10:40AM

The nex time Labour oppose cut backs to education, someone will just point out the prices the state had to pay some greedy people for land.

You really need half a million for a few acres? If you really believe in things like education, you should want to bleed the state.

Tora Bora · 02-11-2010 10:47AM

I wonder did Mrs Gilmore, throw a few bob Eamon's way recently, to fund all those snazzy suits and ties, he has been wearing, whilst he sits on the fence surounded by his handlers:D:D

gbee · 02-11-2010 10:52AM

He is married to her, like it or not, 1/2 of the money is his in the eyes of the law.

For argument sake, say he is broke in the morning and he divorces her tomorrow, he walks away with 1/2 of everything.

So he can't just say the money is his wife's.

jmayo · 02-11-2010 11:11AM

RichardAnd wrote: »

I don't really see the problem with this. Many people made money from the boom who still have it, you just never hear of these people as they were wise enough to quite whilst they were ahead. So mrs Gilmore made some money, well done to her.

Ah but it does raise a few eyebrows about the socialist credentials of old Eamon.
I expect more of these type of stories to start appearing as Labour starts getting targetted.

dixiefly wrote: »

I wonder whether the fact that she is chief executive of Dun Laoghaire VEC had anything to do with the purchase.

Eamon Gilmore with his wife Carol Hanney: sold family landTHE wife of Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore sold a two-and-a-half-acre school site in east Co Galway to the state for €525,000, the Sunday Tribune has learned.
...
A spokeswoman for the Office of Public works (OPW) confirmed it acted on behalf of the Department of Education in the purchase of a 2.5-acre school site for a national school in Killimor, which is close to Loughrea, from Hanney.
...
The sale, for €525,000, was agreed in 2006 and completed in June 2007.
...
Among the other major beneficiaries of school-site land purchases between 2005 and 2009 were well-known property developers such as Joe O'Reilly of Castlethorn, Joe Moran's Manor Park homebuilders, and Séamus Ross of Menolly Homes.

kippy wrote: »

525K+ for 2.5 acres of land in East Galway.
Does anyone think that was (even at the time) well above the market price?

Agree that is €210,000 an acre.
Not bad for a site that was not going to be used for multiple housing scheme.
Was there any planning on the site ?

It will now look a bit rich of old Eamon to come out complaining about how too many multiples of agri value was paid for land.
Also a bit rich for him to come out complaining about state over paying for land for things such as prison site when his family have benefitted from things such as this.

gbee wrote: »

He is married to her, like it or not, 1/2 of the money is his in the eyes of the law.

For argument sake, say he is broke in the morning and he divorces her tomorrow, he walks away with 1/2 of everything.

So he can't just say the money is his wife's.

It does appear to work for bankers and property developers though. :rolleyes:

murphaph · 02-11-2010 11:12AM

If she had nothing to do with the dept of education then I might be more inclined to believe that nothing untoward went on here.

I think questions need answering at the very least. It will, for sure, make Gilmore's blusterous tirades about taxing the rich that bit harder to swallow!

Tim Robbins · 02-11-2010 11:56AM

It confirms my suspicisions that Labour are not a true party of the left. They are a party of a vested interest, the political wing of the unions. They pretend they stand up for the common man but if you really believe in standing up for the common man you should think it is wrong that a private individual can make so much money of the sale of land. Now they have made it clear the only think that is wrong when it's not them doing it.

Tora Bora · 02-11-2010 12:16PM

Tim Robbins wrote: »

It confirms my suspicisions that Labour are not a true party of the left. They are a party of a vested interest, the political wing of the unions. They pretend they stand up for the common man but if you really believe in standing up for the common man you should think it is wrong that a private individual can make so much money of the sale of land. Now they have made it clear the only think that is wrong when it's not them doing it.

That is so unfair of you! She, on the one hand could be a died in the wool Fianna Failer, whilst HE, is undoubtedly our modern day Larkin.
One day he too will have a statue to his memory. The statue will be firmly secured on top of a fence somewhere:cool:

Tim Robbins · 02-11-2010 04:07PM

Tora Bora wrote: »

That is so unfair of you! She, on the one hand could be a died in the wool Fianna Failer, whilst HE, is undoubtedly our modern day Larkin.
One day he too will have a statue to his memory. The statue will be firmly secured on top of a fence somewhere:cool:

And the statue will be talking out both sides of its mouth.

WalterMitty · 02-11-2010 06:10PM

if they are jointly assesed then he should hand his half of the money back to state if he wants to be a "socially responsible" leader.

eric hoone · 02-11-2010 07:58PM

TheUsual wrote: »

Ha ha !

Serves him right the champagne socialist. Next time I see him with an angry red on TV I will just laugh.

Maybe the party can now be called 'New Labour'. Eamon's no stranger to political re-branding. Or how about 'Democratic Centre'?

Gilmore's wife made some dosh from the property boom..

Comments