Bernard McNamara - Do you feel sorry for him?

I don't think he is looking for sympathy......and I actually think that both ONQ and micmlos posts are quite telling - in that they have had personal dealings with the man and speak of a good person - a genuine professional and courteous individual. Also the fact that he is standing up and doing the interviews, not skulking away anonymously - like some of the others. He took the risks and failed.

I personally worked on some of those hotel projects (not macnamara ones) and I could tell you stories of greedy individuals, some of whom I now see having their come uppance, but even more who have scuttled away into hibernation with their money still intact and no reprecussions whatsover. You could soon tell who was genuine and professional and who was out for a quick buck on the back of someone else. Mr. McNamara falls into the former category in my eyes.

I can't see him taking an easy approach and applying for the Artists Exemption.

There are too many people trying to blame someone else - quit the blame game. I do feel our politicans have let us down and will never vote FF but ultimately we make our own financial choices.

Nobody made me queue on a rainy Saturday morning in west Dublin for what I knew was an overpriced shoebox in an estate of 700 houses. I did it myself.

This country will not improve until we all stand up and take responsibility for ourselves.
 
I've never met Mr. McNamara but my husband has and my husband's family know the McNamaras well as my late father-in-law was an architect and dealt with McNamara builders for years.

I have yet to hear one person who has actually met or knows Mr. McNamara to say one bad word about him or his family. They kept a low profile throughout the boom, treated their employees well, paid the Revenue Commissioners, built good houses and did a lot for the charity. Surely thousands of people benefited from McNamaras taking risks.

My impression wasn't that Mr. Mcnamara was looking for anyone's sympathy but is facing the challenges that lie upon him and his family the way any decent and genuine person would. For that, I wish him and his all the best.

I would just like to comment on 'need to buy ASAP' first time buyer mentality of the last 5-6 years. I knew a man who was obsessed with buying a property - saved €1000 a month for deposit, received brochures for every development in south Dublin,... In 2005, he decided to put a booking deposit on a €385k two pokey bedroom apartment in South Co. Dublin (could easily be back of beyond but it's south of Dublin on the map). I kept telling him that if he kept saving and waited, the property prices will have to come down but he was having none of it. Fast forward to late 2009: those very same apartments are selling for €300k - €320k, if he kept saving for 4 more years, he would have had another €45k for deposit (original deposit was about €31k) AND if he bought the same place now, his mortgage would be €244k instead of €354k. €110k difference is worth waiting for 4 years IMO.
 
Yachtie said:
€110k difference is worth waiting for 4 years IMO.
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It is if you know it's coming but even the so-called-experts (the McNamaras of this World) didn't call it right. If anyone was convinced that prices would fall so dramatically, they would have sold their principal residence and rented.

The reality,however, is that rents were also at their peak in 2005/06. While hindsight is wonderful, I think it's reasonable that people would have considered it prudent to get onto the property ladder while it was still within reach.
 
Staples said:
If anyone was convinced that prices would fall so dramatically, they would have sold their principal residence and rented.
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I know of a manager in one of the major banks that did this.

He had been preaching doom and gloom for years but managed to call the time right and sold.
 
Towger said:
AIB did exactly that with many of it's buildings, including it's HQ!
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That's very interesting, I wonder why they decided to sell, would like to see the notes on the meeting where it was decided to sell, should be part of the new banking enquiry as well.
 
This guy was a FF county councillor who went on to make a fortune from several huge contracts over the years due to his party connections...alot of his wealth has been tranfered over to his family in recent years!!!!I have yet to meet a millonaire FF member who plays by the rules!people should feel sorry for the unemployed of this country who are paying the price of a greedy few!
 

I never thought I would ever agree with anything Purple had to say - being of a diametrically opposed political opinion - but you're dead right here.

In a capitalist society, where your assets are your worth, he risked all, he gained a lot, and in the end he lost. I feel sorry for him as a person. I tend to be risk-averse myself despite being s/e, but know how much our society needs people to risk their assets for future gain. Being risk averse meant that I did not expand my business despite all the temptations to do so and so I've ended up ok.

It's the builders who built estates in the middle of nowhere that I really feel sorriest for, as well as people who bought them. Estates that will end up being knocked down because there's an oversupply of houses-in-the-middle-of-nowhere (ghost estates). Everyone bet on the future, and the future let them down. Both the builders and the buyers bought into the crap peddled by the media (don't forget the power of advertising ie estate agents ads subsidised the newspapers).

And now the media are well overselling "there's a recession on", and thus making the situation even worse.
 
Gordanus said:
Estates that will end up being knocked down because there's an oversupply of houses-in-the-middle-of-nowhere (ghost estates)
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I think this is likely. In a corporate scenario where the share price falls too low for the board of directors, one of the options is to perform a share-buy back, which usually results in the price of the remaining shares to rise. By knocking these ghost estates a little demand might be infused into the market - people will still need housing, but not the bland commuter estates perhaps.
 

People who bought before the boom weren't losing out either way. Those who were so blinded by need or desire to own a property or five and were willing to pay over the odds (and driving the prices up by the same means) are the ones who are now suffering. Those are the very same people who bored the rest of us to tears with how much equity they have in their house(s) at dinner parties.

Developers, builders and auctioneers merely jumped on the band wagon.

I am not an economist, a banker, and estate agent or a FF member but a pure and simple logic made me believe for a long time that there would be a turn. Once it took two of more than average salaries, €30k deposit and a promise of a spare room tenant to be able to buy a mid-terrace two bedroom house 20km off the far side of Mullingar, anyone with a grain of common sense could see that the prices would have to drop. Only because nobody would be able to afford a home. If target customer can not afford to pay the ticket price, the seller has to reconsider.

Plus, we have been hearing of ridiculous amounts of money being paid to private landlords for social housing (or whatever it's called) for years. Governments of some European countries dealt with the same problem by buying out private properties and using them for social housing. This not only drove the cost of social housing down but also private rents and property prices. If the Irish government did this while we still had money to burn, a lot of our problems would have been solved before they even surfaced.
 

Yes, but "while we had money to burn", house prices were at their peak and the wholesale intervention of the State would have further inflated the bubble. In any event, the role of the State as landlord has not been overly successful. The role carries costly repsonsibilities in terms of maintenance, upkeep, which make the option uneconomic.

A more useful role for the State might have been to use its collective bargaining power to increase rental standards and decrease rates, although at the height of the boom this may not have been realistic.
 
Staples said:
A more useful role for the State might have been to use its collective bargaining power to increase rental standards and decrease rates, although at the height of the boom this may not have been realistic.
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Or popular
 
Have come across him a couple of times through work. Wasnt impressed considering his status in the construction world. Seems to depend a lot on political connections.
 
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