Charles Haughey and Dermot Desmond - solving world problems.....As we in this corrupt wee Statelet lurch from one potential/possible/probable political scandal to another , it is only fitting that we take a look back at previous potential/possible/probable political scandals :
When he was State Minister for Energy, Fianna Fail's Michael Smith agreed to hire NCB Stockbrokers to sell off the 25% of Tara Mines which the State owned : NCB's fee of £530,000 was also agreed on .
A Senior Executive at Morgan Grenfell , one of the top two British merchant banks , said at the time - " The fee was definitely very high . NCB got 1.5% for what was a straight-forward deal ." An executive at Kleinworths , another of London's top merchant banks , said at the time - " It is hard , looking at the deal , to see how NCB could get the fee - £250,000 would have been more like it ."
It should be noted that the sale of Tara Mines was not put out to tender , and that NCB's founder and then Chairperson was Dermot Desmond who , at the time , also acted as an 'Adviser' on economic and financial matters to Charles Haughey .
Coincidence , of course : as such , we would like to apologise for our misleading 'potential/possible/probable...' comment of earlier on . This blog will , hopefully, publish as usual on Monday October 9 - we are heading off now on our flying pigs for a little break.......
