Remember the name: Paul Coulson. In 2002, he closed down the Irish Glass Bottle Company, making 375 workers redundant. Many came from the local community in Ringsend, working in a plant that started in 1932. But Coulson did not care – he was in it for the money.
A former accountant, Coulson started life by ‘re-structuring’ the Trinity Ball to make a profit. Then he tried his hand at aircraft leasing, one of Ireland’s prime tax-dodging industries, before buying Ardagh Glass and the Ringsend site.
Like a good capitalist, Coulson spotted an opportunity. If he could get rid of the Irish Glass Bottle plant and its workers, he could sell off the site as property. This was the Celtic Tiger after all, and property speculation was all the rage.
In 2006, the site was sold for €412 million, and Coulson was now on the pig’s back. With that money, he went on a buying spree, snapping up companies all over the world.
One of his favored techniques was junk bonds. You borrow money from other capitalists, promising a higher rate of return and once you have taken hold of your new asset, you strip it down, by selling off profitable parts. Coulson, you understand, was into ‘financial engineering.’
He bought various metal and glass companies all over the world and was hailed as ‘a successful Irish businessman’. But eventually, one of his companies ran up debts of $4 billion and other financial sharks wanted their money back. So they made a deal.
Coulson has just walked away with €92m after agreeing to hand over shares. And that is why he is in the news.
Now, circle back to what has happened at the old Irish Glass Bottle site.
The first group to buy the site off Coulson was a make-up consortium consisting of the former Fianna Fáil councilor, Bernard McNamara, who bizarrely inveigled the Dublin Docklands Authority, a public body, into putting up some of the €412 million for the purchase. It was financed by the notorious Anglo-Irish Bank.
When the crash happened in 2008, McNamara and Anglo Irish Bank went with it. A government agency, NAMA took over the Irish Glass Bottle site and valued it at just €45 million.
The site was now in public hands as the Irish people had financed NAMA. In the legislation that established NAMA, there was a mandate to help social development. It was the sort of nice, rhetorical wrapping that the political establishment sometimes uses when they are helping their rich friends but need public support.
Nevertheless, People Before Profit decided to test the rhetoric and demanded that the site be used for social and affordable homes. After a public meeting, an Irish Glass Bottle Site campaign was established to press for this very demand.
But over twenty years later, we can draw up a final balance sheet.
Despite a vigorous campaign by residents, there are still no social or affordable homes on the old glass bottle site, even though it can accommodate up to 3,000 new homes.
Instead, apartments there are due to cost €495,000 for a one-bed and €675,000 for a two-bed.
One reason is that NAMA decided to sell most of the site to John Ronan and Oaktree Capital. And like Coulson, they are only in it for the money.
But guess who the latest sharks are? John Ronan is another former Celtic Tiger ’developer’ – aka a property speculator – who once took his private plane to Morocco for a drinks party. Oaktree Capital is a giant US firm that buys up ‘distressed assets’ all over the world. They descended like vultures in Ireland because property there could be bought up cheap.
Ronan and Oaktree Capital are not interested in housing people, especially the good people of Ringsend, a proud local community that is being engulfed by a new gentrification set off by the expansion of the Google site in the area.
It is all about one word: profit.
Today, the collapse of the Celtic Tiger is a distant memory. But the destruction that it left in its wake is still there. Many had hoped that after the crash, they could at least get homes because property prices had collapsed. Some even dared to hope they could get houses in their area rather than living in overcrowded conditions with their families.
It was not to be in a land controlled by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Their first concern was helping property speculators and owners to ‘get back on their feet’. In many devious ways, their one objective was to look after their rich friends. They invited in the vulture capitalists, giving them tax breaks to push up property prices again.
So while people look on at the scandal of the Irish Glass Bottle site, Paul Coulson, John Ronan and yes, Bernard McNamara have walked off into the sunset. They are back speculating, dealing, and profit-making. Welcome to Irish capitalism.
