Sean Fitzpatrick: the genius behind the Celtic Tortoise

SEAN FITZPATRICK WRITES: “I am appalled and disgusted by the way the Irish media is demonising bankers like myself. This behaviour has all the hallmarks of a witch-hunt. When will all this Irish begrudgery and envy end?”

BRIAN BARRINGTON, PHILOSOPHICAL COUNSELLOR TO THE STARS, REPLIES: Like you, I am appalled by the lynch-mob mentality of the media and the ordinary Irish people. So I’m glad to hear that you have not let it get to you, and that after your recent nice holiday in South Africa, you have reportedly returned to Ireland looking refreshed and tanned.

As you said in 2007 “Our wealth-creators should be rewarded and admired, not subjected to levels of scrutiny that known criminals would rightly find offensive”. Admittedly, you said this before 99% of the shareholder wealth of Anglo-Irish Bank was wiped out. But the point still stands.

It’s wealth-creators like you that have been the driving force behind Ireland’s economic success. It was you who worked out this simple scheme: the more Ireland borrows from abroad to buy property in Ireland, the higher property values go up. People then think that they will keep on going up, so they then keep on borrowing to buy them. Entrepreneurial genius! That is how Anglo-Irish Bank made such extraordinary profits over the years. Other Irish banks were then forced to copy that business model, in order to retain market share and match Anglo-Irish Bank’s profits.

Even during talks with the government to organise the bank guarantee to save the collapse of Anglo, you didn’t let your eye for a good business opportunity desert you. Instead, you bought hundreds of thousands of Euro worth of shares in Anglo while the discussions were on-going. Then, when the bank guarantee was announced, bank shares went up, so you sold the shares at a good profit. A brilliant move!

So what went wrong? Personally, I blame the media. As you said yourself in 2006 “Much of the nonsense being peddled by the media could fuel the anger of many of those who have FAILED to benefit from our economic success thus far. The media must be held accountable”. It was the media’s fault.

I also blame the regulators. As you said in 2006 "The increasing burden of corporate McCarthyism and business regulation is threatening the entrepreneurial zeal that has made the Irish economy the envy of the world”. For example, you showed great entrepreneurial zeal over the years when you kept disguising the 80 million Euro loan that Anglo-Irish Bank gave you. The McCarthyite regulators didn’t spot this at the time, but now things have become immeasurably worse – and it seems that our entrepreneurs can’t do anything without some resentful, envious regulator looking over their shoulder.

So I think you deserve every cent of the millions of Euro you made over the years, as well as the 550,000 a year pension that you will now be receiving from Anglo-Irish Bank. Of course, Anglo-Irish Bank has no money, so it has been nationalised. This will mean that your 550,000 Euro pension will be paid for by taxpayers, the ordinary plodders who earn modest incomes and who, as you put it, “failed to benefit from our economic success”. Another entrepreneurial master-stroke on your part.

PS: just when I thought I had got to the bottom of your flare for business, I read today that €4 billion was temporarily lodged with Anglo Irish on September 30th 2008, hours after the State’s bank guarantee was announced, allowing the bank to show a higher level of deposits on its books on the day the auditors assessed the bank’s accounts. A stunning move!

PPS: I have now just read that you were on the board that approved a state agency's decision to buy a €411m development site -- which was funded a month later with a €293m loan from your own bank. It just gets better and better and better ....