Seven years on, Seán Gallagher STILL won’t say where mystery €83k came from
SEVEN years after questions were raised about an €83,000 cheque that ended up in the wrong bank account, Presidential hopeful Seán Gallagher has declined to shed further light on the controversy.
During the now-infamous Frontline Presidential debate, Mr Gallagher faced repeated questions over the issue.
The money appeared to have been paid to Mr Gallagher in 2009 by one of his companies, Beach House Training and Consulting Ltd, which handled fees from his public speaking and business training work.
The money was subsequently repaid by him in 2010.
The money – which was wrongly referred to at the time as being €89,000 – was originally recorded as a director’s loan. However, company directors are restricted from taking loans from their companies in excess of 10% of the value of the company’s assets, in order to protect creditors. The money from Beach House Training and Consulting Ltd exceeded 70% of the company’s capital.
During the debate, Mr Gallagher stated that the cash was not a director’s loan but was in fact a payment to him which had erroneously been lodged to the wrong account, and therefore was erroneously recorded as being a director’s loan.
During the Frontline debate hosted by Pat Kenny, the businessman was challenged by audience member and businesswoman Glenna Lynch about the money.
She questioned his explanation for what had happened, and asked him to give details of precisely what the money was for and details of the companies involved.
Mr Gallagher chose not to give those details, but insisted: ‘I am absolutely 100% happy and satisfied from my accountancy firm that no breach took place.’
When asked by the Irish Daily Mail this week to clear up the issue once and for all by explaining what the money was for, who paid it and what was the name of the company it was incorrectly made out to – and what was the name of the company it should have been made out to – Mr Gallagher appeared reluctant to answer the questions.
The Mail pointed out the lack of clarity to Mr Gallagher and then asked: ‘Are you able to clarify these outstanding issues at this point?’
Mr Gallagher replied: ‘And how is that an outstanding issue?’
It was put to Mr Gallagher that the questions of who paid the €83,000, and what it was payment for are questions to which the public does not have answers, and so they are issues that remain outstanding.
Mr Gallagher replied: ‘But it was a company, and a client of a company. That’s commercial information.
Why would be that be relevant in terms of who we all do business with in our daily lives... but that was dealt with and has been dealt with, and there has been no issues about it since.
‘So it’s hard to see why you would be bringing something up that’s seven years ago.’
Mr Gallagher was then asked by another reporter whether there were any political links to the money. He replied: ‘No, not at all. No. It was a commercial business, why would you suggest that there would be any political connections for that?’
Asked whether he thought that the explanation he had given at the time of the 2011 debate was in fact sufficient to clear the matter up, Mr Gallagher replied: ‘Sure. Yes.’
‘How is that an outstanding issue?’