Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 9 July 2015
Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis
Nexus Phase
Mr. Derek Quinlan:
Well the IFSC ... I'll go back to... I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, to go back to the 1980s, but I remember the IFSC when Harry Crosbie's yard was the only activity on North Wall Quay. And, you know, it was ... nobody was going to go down there, nobody. And if we weren't there ... we were the biggest investor in the IFSC. It was the ... is, I believe, today still the biggest contributor to the Exchequer. And those properties, which were being built on a speculative basis by the then consortium that had the licence to buy down there ... we were their biggest clients and I was delighted to in ... have that money invested in Ireland. I loved Ireland, I was responsible for bringing the Four Seasons Hotel here, which transformed the hospitality business here - set new standards.
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