Lee calls for tougher stance on banks and NAMA
Fine Gael TD, economist and former RTE journalist George Lee told Clonmel's business leaders that the Irish people haven't been half demanding enough with the banks given the huge bail out and life line they are receiving from the Irish tax payer through NAMA.
Mr Lee said the Irish people were too passive as a nation and didn't like rocking the boat. But he believed the boats of the banks needed to be rocked big time.
The recently elected Dublin South TD was speaking at a Clonmel Chamber of Commerce lunch at the Park Hotel in Clonmel last Friday.
RTE's former economics editor captivated the audience of Clonmel 's business and local authority leaders in a speech and questions and answer session that lasted more than an hour.
Mr Lee said NAMA represented a huge bail out to the banks and the Irish tax payer was giving a lot away for nothing.
The government was going to spend j54billion with no guarantee that the banks will start lending to businesses again. He didn't believe the banks would resume lending for a period of time.
Fine Gael had a proposal for a "good bank" that would start lending immediately but the Minister for Finance dismissed it out of hand.
Mr Lee said he didn't trust the banks as institutions. They were driven by one thing – profit. This was absolutely fine but they must recognise what they are.
He recalled the the bail out given in relation to the AIB subsidiary ICI in the 1980s and pointed out that within a few years the banks "peed in our eyes with tax evasion schemes". He had a huge file on banking scandals.
Mr Leesaid he had no confidence that NAMA will achieve what was needed to be achieved and he didn't believe it would collect 80% of the bad loans on its books by 2020.
Mr Lee also expressed concern that the people of this country weren't pulling together to overcome this economic crisis.
He cited two studies of some of the most successful international companies ranging from Shell to Microsoft that found several key characteristics they shared: a great sense of identity and loyalty among its workforce, tolerant management that allowed staff the room to develop ideas, a strong connection to the outside world and very conservative approach to finances. The studies also found that these companies never put profits first. Profits came second to producing the best product in their field.
He was worried that Ireland and the Irish people were not reflecting these qualities. The Irish people weren't pulling together as they began to do in 1986 during the last recession and there was no sense of identity. They were blaming each other. He saw the public service versus the private sector on a recent Frontline show hosted by Pat Kenny. He read with concern the reports of trade union leaders on huge salaries about to bring the country to a halt.
The lunch, which replaced the Chamber’s annual ball, was also addressed by successful entrepreneur Bobby Kerr from Kilkenny, one of the business dragons on the Irish version of the Dragons’ Den show.
Mr Kerr, whose mother hails from Anglesea Street in Clonmel, gave an overview of his career, which has ranged from heading up the Campbell Bewleys group and running his family’s business, the Newpark Hotel in Kilkenny, to founding his own chain of coffee shops that is now the Insomnia chain with 52 outlets around the country, 20 of which are franchises.
His advice to cafe owners in these tough economic times was to go down the good value route and market special value offers to customers.
He was highly critical of commercial property rent costs on businesses and described the relationship between landlords and their business tenant relationship in Ireland as “crazy”. He said an affordable minimum rent should be applied to business tenants and any extra rent on top of that should be based on the revenue of the tenant business.
In relation to Dragons’ Den, Mr Kerr said he invested in three business proposals featured in the first season of Dragons’s Den. One of his investments was the indoor clothes line created by Eddie O’Brien from Ballingarry.
He said Mr O’Brien had a great business and he loved working with him. He was with him at the Ploughing Championships in Athy where he sold nine of this clothes lines at €1500 each at a time when the garden furniture business was in trouble.
Mr Kerr hopes to invest in more new ventures in the new series of Dragons Den. He pointed out entrepreneurs, who were well prepared with their ideas and products and delivered their presentations properly on the programme, received a “real leg up” from the exposure they received on the programme.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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