Mick Wallace underpayment of VAT


I've no doubt AAM isn't representative - if only because the sample size (of regular posters) is simply too small!

Anyway, I never said he shouldn't resign - in fact I said quite early on in this thread that I thought he should! I'm actually surprised nearly 1/4 of people reckon he shouldn't resign (they're obviously all the people I was telling you about with VAT accruals on their balance sheets )
 
Oh hang on a sec, Mick Wallace is not exactly living in poverty..
I think you should have stopped while the going was good.
 
thedaras said:
Oh hang on a sec, Mick Wallace is not exactly living in poverty..
I think you should have stopped while the going was good.
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I just can't help myself

I never said Wallace was living in poverty!

I had suggested that the motive behind the offence has to be taken into consideration, and I'm just responding to DB74's question regarding what Begley's motive was, in my opinion and based on the circumstances of Begley's case. If Begley's company had been teetering on the brink, I'd have a lot more sympathy for him too, but I'm pointing out that that wasn't the case.
 
I don't think so. I believe that a TD must serve a certain minimum amount of time e.g. 4 years to qualify.

Brendan
 

The Journal.ie has 2713 in favour and 628 against

Similar order - roughly 20 believe he should stay.

I don't think anyone on Askaboutmoney has said that they think that he should not resign.
 
DB74 said:
I don't know where this notion that Begley did what he did out of pure greed comes from
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Here's a couple of trends from the abridged accounts of Begley Bros Ltd as filed to the CRO:

Year|Directors Fees&Pension|Balance of Directors loans to co|
2002|235,214|116,896|
2003|272,153|26,438|
2004|322,549|125,346|
2005|434,466|1,225,346|
2006|594,106|1,195,346|
2007|574,751|1,164,568|

2 observations in relation to the figures above:
Firstly, there was a marked upward trend in the level of directors' remuneration from the company in the period that it has been shown the import duty fraud occurred.
Secondly, in 2005 1.1m was introduced into the company by the directors (I'm NOT suggesting anything untoward about the source of the money, but it is an interesting coincidence).
 
According to the Indo, Begley's company as repaying loans to the tune of €33K a month.

http://www.independent.ie/national-...x-years-over-16m-garlic-tax-scam-3045619.html

Also, directors loans to the company increased from €125K in 2004 to €1.2m in 2005. Why would he be loaning the company money if it was as successful as you claim. Who says he didn't fake the import duty to keep his employees in a job?

What's Mick Wallace's house like? I'd be surprised if he lives in a 3-bed semi in an estate in Wexford somewhere

Also Wallace's salary doubled from €148K to €289K between 2007 & 2008. That doesn't sound like someone trying to keep a struggling business afloat. In fact it's more like someone getting what they can out of a dying business before the creditors come knocking.
 
I hope someone does a poll solely on the streets of Wexford, given that Wallace said yesterday that he would decide based on the vibe from Wexford people whether to resign or not
 

I think Wallace should be afforded the same treatment as Lowry (continued access to ministers and officials) since both are consumate self publicists and public representatives. Garlic Guy is neither.
 
DB74 said:
What's Mick Wallace's house like? I'd be surprised if he lives in a 3-bed semi in an estate in Wexford somewhere
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He lives on the Clontarf Road, Dublin - not far from the railway bridge.



There are two directors in the company, Mick and his son Sasha. Your statement would mean that Mick was the only one being paid. The Independent forgot to mention that the directors of the company took a pay cut in 2007 compared to 2006.
 
RonanC said:
The Independent forgot to mention that the directors of the company took a pay cut in 2007 compared to 2006.
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2007 must have been tough for them, getting by on only €148K between the 2 of them.

Strange that they bumped the salary back up again when things were going bad
 

It doesn't matter if they took a paycut in 2007. You don't go paying yourself six figure salaries when you owe Revenue over €1m. Out of curiousity, what age is the son?
 
DB74 said:
I hope someone does a poll solely on the streets of Wexford, given that Wallace said yesterday that he would decide based on the vibe from Wexford people whether to resign or not
Click to expand...

I can think of several politicians, including former taoisigh, who would never have been re-elected, if those electing them cared about integrity. Instead some of them repeatedly topped the poll !
 

In relation to Wallace the increase in salary does colour the thing a bit alright, but with director's remuneration it's hard to say much without knowing what its composition is - he may well have been drawing a lot of the money to service personal loans, it was certainly a common feature with builders at the time.

We've reached a stage where I'm defending Wallace a lot less than you're defending Begley though, which I find a bit ironic...!

As for Begley, the 33k a month refers to the import duty; at the time of the article over half of the money had already been paid back. The 2005 accounts are interesting because of the cash injection... I want to have a look at them properly before I say anything else on it.
 
Wallace should resign as TD. He could always run in the bye-election and let the voters decide if they want him as a TD.
 
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