BANK OF Ireland recorded a legal claim over Dublin lands owned by Minister for Health James Reilly in May, it has emerged.
The bank registered a charge covering “present and future advances repayable with interest” against Dr Reilly’s ownership in what was his family’s farm at Baldrummond in Lusk, Co Dublin. A legal charge over an asset strengthens a bank’s security over a debt, in the same way as a mortgage is secured on a house.
The charge was registered nine days after the stay of execution on a €1.9 million court-ordered debt against him and four other investors in a Co Tipperary nursing home had expired. The bank would have been one of the beneficiaries of the settlement of the €1.9 million judgment, had the debt been paid in time.
Land Registry records show that the charge against Dr Reilly’s lands in Co Dublin was registered by the bank on May 9th, 2012.
“The governor and company of the Bank of Ireland is owner of this charge,” state the land records covering the Baldrummond property.
Dr Reilly and four others consented to a High Court judgment of €1.9 million against them last February for failing to buy out eight investors in the Greenhill nursing home in Carrick-on-Suir.
The money was due to be paid by the five investors to release the other eight from liabilities due to Bank of Ireland on the property.
A stay of execution on the judgment was imposed until April 30th but the five investors were unable to pay the debt and the judgment was registered against Dr Reilly and the other four on June 28th.
The bank logged the additional loan charge against Dr Reilly’s land in Lusk before the judgment was registered and his name appeared in Stubbs Gazette – the first time a government minister has been listed in the debt defaulters magazine – on July 9th.
A source close to Dr Reilly said last night the issue of the charge on the lands at Baldrummond predated his time in government.
The issue was set out in a letter of offer from the bank to Dr Reilly in June 2010, the source said, and the delay in registering the charge was a matter for the bank. Bank of Ireland gave no response to questions from The Irish Times, saying that it does not comment on individual customers.
Dr Reilly lists the former family farm at Baldrummond on his Dáil register of interests, saying that the 86 acres are leased for tillage.
He has borrowed money from the bank for other properties, including a period property in Moneygall, Co Offaly, and a holiday home in Co Clare, according to official land and property deed records showing charges for loans.
Land Registry records show that Bank of Ireland, which is 15 per cent owned by the State, registered loan charges on Dr Reilly’s house at South Shore Road in Rush, Co Dublin, securing his borrowings to the bank in February 2010.
A charge was also registered in favour of Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank in 2007 against Dr Reilly’s property in Doonbeg, Co Clare. His Dáil register of interests shows he owns a holiday home next to the Doonbeg golf course, where he is a member of the club.
The 2010 accounts for Dr Reilly’s Dublin property firm Lusk Property Investments list Bank of Ireland’s branch in Kilkenny as the bankers to the company, official company records show.
Dr Reilly told the Dáil last month that it had been hoped that litigation relating to the nursing home, including a Circuit Court action against the nursing home operator over the terms of a lease, would have been resolved by the time the stay of execution on the judgment expired on April 30th. He said, however, that it was not possible to meet this deadline due to court adjournments
Dr Reilly and his four co-investors in the nursing home did not dispute the judgment, which was based on their agreement to buy out the other eight investors.
He told the Dáil that, to comply with the code of conduct that applied to Ministers, he had been advised by the Standards in Public Office Commission in October 2011 to set up a blind trust to deal with his interest in the nursing home but that his bank did not consent to it.
