The president of the Irish Auctioneers' and Valuers' Institute has warned auctioneers they should not be influenced by the promise of follow-on sales when engaged in selling one piece of property.
"We must see this for what it is - bribery," Mr Gerry Slattery said, warning auctioneers not to be influenced by buyers who offer them more business if they get the property they wanted. Auctioneers should never forget that they were legally bound to act for the vendor and no one else.
Mr Slattery told the institute's annual conference in Waterford at the weekend that people bidding on property occasionally tried to influence the estate agent by talking about giving them the sale of other property once they bought. This problem could arise where a developer bidding on land offered the estate agent the sale of new houses to be built afterwards or where a purchaser promised the sale of his own property once he managed to buy.
Mr Slattery said they must never eye the next sale often proposed by the would-be purchaser. Agents tempted to consider "this route to self-reward should shut up shop now, leave the profession and leave our business to honest brokers".
Degrees and professionalism were all very fine but without basic honesty and integrity they were worthless, he said, urging those embarking on a career in property to be straight in all their dealings. He said honesty in handling transactions for vendors was of particular concern. Their profession was built on trust.
"Vendors often place the most important business transaction of their lives in our hands. We must honour that with total commitment. Anything less is betrayal."
Referring to clients in financial, marital or other difficulties, he said selling property was not always the right option for these people. Auctioneers should see if there was a better way to sort out the problem. "If someone is in a hole, don't sell him out if you can dig him out."
Mr Pat Cox, leader of the European Liberal Group in the European Parliament, said Ireland was on a learning curve at home and within the EU on how to manage success. It required in political terms a transition from the politics of opportunism to the politics of opportunity.
It demanded an emphasis on strategy and not strokes. The EU did not exist nor was it invented as some kind of cash cow for Ireland and the European taxpayers did not exist to pay the bill indefinitely for Ireland's essential infrastructure when self-evidently they perceived a greater ability to pay on our own part.
"We started our European experience close to Greece. We will end the next financial perspective in 2007 closer to Germany. With that transition, our basic European interests are changing."
