TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen and Green Party leader John Gormley are today expected to discuss the junior coalition partner’s concerns about a previously undisclosed contact between Mr Cowen and former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick.
A new book based in part on 18 recorded interviews with Mr FitzPatrick, the last which took place on November 30th, 2010, covers a number of contacts Mr Cowen had with the former banker in the period when Anglo was heading towards collapse.
The Taoiseach has confirmed that in July 2008 he played golf and had dinner with Mr FitzPatrick, then still Anglo chairman, at Druids Heath – part of the Druids Glen complex – in Co Wicklow.
However, he insisted it was a social occasion and the affairs of Anglo were not discussed.
Fintan Drury, a friend of Mr Cowen’s who was then an Anglo director, was also present.
A spokesman for the Greens said they hadn’t known about the Wicklow meeting. “We have some concerns. I expect John Gormley will talk to the Taoiseach tomorrow.”
Mr Cowen has also confirmed that, in March 2008, when he was minister for finance, he took a call from Mr FitzPatrick relating to Anglo’s shares, the price of which was collapsing.
Mr Cowen was told about businessman Seán Quinn’s then secret investment in the bank and said he told Mr FitzPatrick he would refer the issue to the governor of the Central Bank, and did so.
Mr Quinn’s massive secret investment in the bank formed part of a matrix of factors that saw its share price collapse during 2008 and contributed to the Government’s decision, in September 2008, to guarantee the Irish banks.
In the book, Mr FitzPatrick said that at a dinner with Anglo directors and executives in April 2008, when Mr Cowen was minister for finance and about to become taoiseach, he was asked about the National Treasury Management Agency putting more funds on deposit in the bank.
“He said he’d look into it,” the banker is quoted as saying.
Green chairman Senator Dan Boyle said his party was taking "very seriously" the disclosures in the book, The FitzPatrick Tapes.
Fine Gael justice spokesman Alan Shatter said the revelations were “extremely serious”, adding that if Green Ministers were unaware of the contacts then “there has been a total breakdown of trust in Government, and it is untenable that the Green Party continues in office for a further day with Fianna Fáil”.
Labour’s spokeswoman on finance Joan Burton said it was “beyond belief that there was no discussion at these encounters of the rapidly deteriorating position of the bank”.
Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív told RTÉ One's The Week in Politicsprogramme that the main issue was "that the Taoiseach immediately told the governor or made sure that the governor of the Central Bank was made aware".
Tánaiste Mary Coughlan said the Taoiseach was not at the golfing event “in anyone’s particular company”.
The new book, by journalists Tom Lyons and Brian Carey, is based on interviews given to them by Mr FitzPatrick who, according to the book, saw the process as an opportunity “of giving my side of the story”.
The book says it was agreed the book could draw on the interviews “without restriction”.
The publication of the book was brought forward by the publishers, which had been contacted on a number of occasions last week by solicitors acting for Mr FitzPatrick.
He could not be contacted yesterday.
The Garda are conducting extensive inquiries into matters at Anglo Irish Bank, including the treatment of loans Mr FitzPatrick had from the bank and which were not disclosed in its accounts.
They are also investigating loans by the bank to clients who bought some of Mr Quinn’s massive Anglo exposure, in an exercise aimed at supporting the Anglo share price.
“I won’t say I approved the plan, but I didn’t disapprove it,” Mr FitzPatrick is quoted as saying.
“I didn’t say to David . . . you can’t do that.”