Company headed by Yates seeks to build 400 homes
Former minister, bookie and broadcaster who retired to live quiet life on farm with his family is behind application for large-scale development in east Cork town
A PROPERTY company of which former politician and broadcaster Ivan Yates is listed as a director has applied for planning permission for a large development of 400 new homes, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The former Fine Gael minister-turned Fianna Fáil media adviser is a director of Ingram Homes, which is seeking permission for a ‘large scale development’ at Water Rock in Midleton, Co. Cork.
The site is just a few kilometres from another development in Clashdermot, Killeagh, on which Ingram Homes was previously granted planning permission to build 92 houses.
Last January the MoS revealed that an amended planning application on the site was submitted in the name ‘Mortimer We Re Back Limited’, a slight variation from the original name of Yates’s venture on the Company Registration Office in July 2021.
‘Officials had meetings with Ingram Homes’
Now his company has set its sights on another larger site in the area, for 400 new houses and apartments in nearby Midleton.
Last month Ingram Homes Ltd, of which Mr Yates is a director along with David Barden, lodged a 10-year planning application for the development at the 31-acre greenfield site at Water-rock with Cork County Council.
According to planning documents, council officials and Ingram Homes representatives had two meetings last March and April regarding the Midleton site as part of the ‘large scale residential development’ process.
The council was due to rule on the development on Wednesday but has postponed its decision after requesting more information from the developer.
In January, the MoS revealed how the former Fine Gael Agriculture Minister was providing media ‘masterclasses’ to Fianna Fáil TDs and senators for €1,500 a session.
In May, Mr Yates chaired the National Housebuilding Summit at Croke Park, where speakers included Fianna Fáil Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien along with leading industry figures.
Mr Yates, who receives a ministerial pension of €74,836 a year, has been listed as a director of Ingram Homes since December 2020, the same year he reached a settlement with AIB over €6m in debts following the collapse of his Celtic Bookmakers business.
He registered a separate property company called Mortimer We’re Back in April 2021 with David Barden.
Two applications to amend the original permission for the houses on the Killeagh site were made by Mortimer We’re Back in Mr Yates’ name. ‘Mortimer We’re Back’ is a reference to a quote in the hit 1980s hit film Coming To America starring Eddie Murphy and has become a catchphrase for an unexpected change in fortune.
It has been an impressive turnaround in fortunes for the former minister and bookmaker, who applied for bankruptcy in Wales in 2011.
Mr Yates was discharged from bankruptcy the following year but was subsequently pursued by AIB for a personal guarantee over his ancestral family home and lands at Blackstoops in Co. Wexford, which he fought for almost a decade.
When he announced his decision to quit broadcasting last year, Mr Yates said he intended to retire, saying he wanted to ‘live a quiet life on the family farm’.
However, in 2020 he was listed as a director with a raft of companies, including Golden Farm Thoroughbreds, of which the former chair of the Labour Relations Commission, Kieran Mulvey, is also listed as a co-director.
He is further listed as a director of Yewtree Infotainment Ltd, ACSJY unlimited and as co-director of Midsummer Investment Unlimited.
Mr Yates’s Celtic Bookmakers was an unlimited company for nearly the entirety of its existence.
But in 2009, two years before it went into receivership and he declared for bankruptcy, Mr Yates filed documents with the CRO to legally change Celtic Bookmakers’ status from unlimited to limited, effectively insulating himself and his family from liability to the debts amassed by his bookies.
After his settlement with AIB, Mr Yates commented that he had become a ‘poster boy for bankruptcy’ and stressed his desire to live a quieter life on the family farm.
However, in an interview last year, the former broadcaster said he was quitting radio and TV because the ‘money was no longer there’, adding: ‘I have always been underpaid.’
Mr Yates did not respond to requests for comment this week.
‘Council has postponed its decision for more info’