Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The O'Donovan family in Clonakilty has been in business for seven generations. Tom and Dena O'Donovan have been in business for 44 years running a viable town centre hotel with 21 bedrooms and two apartments, employing 70 people in the heart of Clonakilty. In 2007, they took out a business loan with AIB under a 30-year repayment plan. Several months later, Ireland had a bank meltdown and AIB hit the O'Donovans with changes to their repayment plan, reducing it from 30 years to 12 years. There were no negotiations whatsoever. Obviously, the O'Donovans objected to the way their repayments were changed by AIB. Anyone who has an agreed loan plan has the right to expect the bank to honour it. AIB railroaded ahead with the restructuring and a suggested five-year review. The O'Donovans sold family property to assist with the restructuring and continued to pay the new sum. Astonishingly, the O'Donovans discovered that, unknown to them, their loan had been sold to a vulture fund, Everyday Finance. AIB then closed their bank account in Clonakilty and transferred the account to Fermoy, taking it from ten doors away to 90 km away. In anyone's view this was to stop the O'Donovans from engaging with the local bank.

As far as I know, by law a bank can only sell on a performing loan to a third party that offers the same facility. AIB did not do this. The O'Donovans tried to engage with Everyday Finance but it made it clear that it is not interested in piecemeal repayments, only large lump sums. At one stage it suggested throwing a few million up on the table. As the O'Donovans are unable to figure what they now owe Everyday Finance their accountant advised the family to make no further repayments. In all this time there has been no communication. The O'Donovans are led to believe the loan was purchased for approximately €365,000. To try to start engagement with Everyday Finance the O'Donovans offered €800,000. That was well over double what the loan was bought for. This was rejected by Everyday Finance. Subsequent increased offers have been rejected. No gesture to engage has been afforded to the O'Donovan family other than rejection to their offers one after another.

In 2022, a receiver was appointed who sent a representative to one of the clothing shop premises belonging to the O'Donovans, in full breach of the general data protection regulation, GDPR, and in front of customers and staff. The man, who did not identify himself, demanded that people would have to leave the building as it was in receivership. The O'Donovan family contacted the receiver to engage, simply asking what they have to pay. The only engagement they got back was a visit from the receiver with a BER engineer, a valuer and a photographer. It treated a family in business in Clonakilty for 44 years like dirt.

The O'Donovans have since received a letter demanding all incomes from tenants. In all this time the only crime of the O'Donovans was to owe too little on properties valued at little more than they owed. Their bad luck was they trusted AIB and entered a business agreement with it which AIB broke. Will the Tánaiste meet the O'Donovan family? As Tánaiste of the country and a member of the Government with a major shareholding in AIB, will he launch an immediate investigation into how the family and their business have been treated and ensure no further action takes place until the matter is thoroughly investigated?

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