Are these the pictures that link Enda Kenny to the mystery ‘hunk’ on Irish Water board?

By Michael O’Farrell

Investigations Editor

IT’S March 12, 2011, and a beaming Enda Kenny is acknowledging a victorious ovation at the TF Royal Theatre in Castlebar to celebrate his homecoming as Taoiseach.

Directly behind him, centre stage, surrounded by Fine Gael TDs and party officials, Frank Quilter and Andrew Sheehy savour the proud moment.

Three years later, Andrew’s younger brother – known to all in his native Kerry as Frankie Sheehy – would emerge as a controversial appointee to the board of Irish Water.

The appointment baffled many since no one had heard of Frankie Sheehy, who for business purposes uses the name Coleman Sheehy.

The mystery was fuelled by the fact that his official Irish Water biography, in contrast to that of fellow board members, was sparse. Politics websites began referring to the 36-year-old keep-fit enthusiast as the mystery ‘hunk’.

Ever since he was parachuted into Irish Water in November 2013, both the company and the Government have refused to divulge any information about him other than a brief three-sentence biography.

All it revealed was that Mr Sheehy was involved in property development in Ireland, the UK and Europe, had spent some time in America relating to family property investments and had once worked for Sherry FitzGerald estate agents in Dublin.

But as an MoS investigation has discovered, Mr Sheehy’s family and their acquaintances were key supporters of Fine Gael’s Kerry machine.

Not only was his brother Andrew Sheehy a party donor and activist but he worked for the party in Kerry with Frank Quilter, a longtime friend of Enda Kenny and party donor.

Nothing speaks of the ties between these three men more than the photo taken of them on the evening of Mr Kenny’s homecoming as Taoiseach as celebrations at the Royal Theatre spilled out into the bar. In the picture Mr Quilter, Andrew Sheehy and Mr Kenny look elated.

Between them stands Ann Strain, Fine Gael’s former fundraising supremo who was vital in raising the millions that helped sweep the party into power.

The moment must have been particularly precious for Mr Quilter, who lived with Mr Kenny during a 1974 summer in New York – a trip that copper-fastened a life-long friendship and political association. Mr Quilter has gone on to become renowned in Kerry as a party organiser.

This week though, with Irish Water at the top of the Government’s crisis list, neither Andrew Sheehy nor Mr Quilter wanted to speak about the appointment of Frankie Sheehy to the board.

‘Don’t bother ringing me. I don’t want to be talking to the papers with everything that would be going on,’ Mr Quilter told the MoS before hanging up.

Andrew Sheehy did not respond at all to voice and text messages. But today, the MoS can throw further light on the background of Frankie and the Fine Gael pedigree of his family and acquaintances.

Efforts to uncover his stated property and investment interests in the US and elsewhere turned up nothing bar a one-time job in a Florida sports bar.

The only verifiable involvement in property development to date – apart from his brief stint at Sherry FitzGerald – is the role he plays in his brother’s company, Melot Properties Ltd. Melot was established in 1995 by Andrew Sheehy and Peter Malbasha – a one-time Irish Nationwide loan recovery manager and now a Nama official. Mr Malbasha and Andrew bought properties in areas such as Talbot Street and Mountjoy Square in Dublin, sometimes through a second short-lived company called Bemstar Trading.

But in 2004, they parted company and Frankie – officially listed as Coleman – took over as a director of Melot Properties and remains so.

He does not own any shares in the company and is not named on any of the deeds for the many Dublin, Laois and Tipperary properties Andrew has acquired.

Something is amiss, though, at Melot. The company is more than two years overdue in filing an annual return for 2012 and last week was officially listed for strike-off.

Several Melot mortgages to Ulster Bank and IIB, one of them in Japanese yen, remain outstanding. The loans have been secured on properties in Mountjoy Square, Gardiner Place and Capel Street.

In 2007, Andrew was listed as a tax defaulter having failed to declare over €110,000 in rental income. He was fined an additional €52,924.

Then in 2009 Melot Properties’ own accountant, OSK, secured a judgment mortgage against properties relating to an unpaid €14,000 bill.

This weekend, the MoS asked Mr Kenny and the Fine Gael party whether Mr Quilter and Andrew Sheehy played any role in Frankie’s appointment to Irish Water. A statement from the party said: ‘Neither Colman Sheehy nor Andrew Sheehy is a member of Fine Gael. Frank Quilter is a member of Fine Gael.’

Asked if the public had the right to know the background of Irish Water directors, Leo Varadkar said: ‘Absolutely. That should be the case for any public appointment.’