Sir, – Further to “AIB should have shown O’Reilly more sensitivity – Desmond” (Business News, July 4th) and “Desmond on O’Reilly – words not action” (Cantillon, July 5th), no wonder my disdain for the media is “legendary” when on one day you give fair coverage to my words and then on the very next day an unidentified author is facilitated to write comments which are completely out of context. It’s disappointing but hardly surprising that when for once you had something good to say, you tried to take it all back the next day.
The comments on Tony O’Reilly on Friday were in the context of a ceremony at Queen’s University for business graduates. I believe that AIB should have allowed Tony O’Reilly to sell his assets and deal with his affairs in an orderly basis. Making comments about Tony O’Reilly’s position does not mean in any way that I am insensitive to other borrowers with AIB – for the record, I am sympathetic to their position and it is misleading for you to suggest otherwise. Whoever “Cantillon” is went off on a complete tangent out of context and introduced a subtext which simply did not arise at Friday’s discussions.
My decisions in relation to INM are well recorded in the press and are made for commercial reasons. I did not take any action against Tony O’Reilly personally such as voting him off the board of INM.
I wonder what Gerry Moriarty thinks of Cantillon’s piece? Hopefully he will not fall into the same cabal of negativity as the other journalists. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT F DESMOND,
IFSC House,
Custom House,
Dublin 1.