Michael O’Farrell
Investigations Editor
A NAMA developer who transferred a beach house and valuable development land to former Fianna Fáil TD Beverley Flynn before going bankrupt is now debt free and launching a new property career, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
When Mayo developer Tony Gaughan – who has two children with Ms Flynn – was adjudicated bankrupt in Bristol in 2013 he owed €40m in outstanding AIB loans that had been transferred to Nama.
Prior to the bankruptcy Mr Gaughan engaged in a number of property transfers, one of which saw a Castlebar property in which Ms Flynn runs a crèche, transferred to his school-aged daughter.
Further transfers saw Ms Flynn – daughter of corrupt former Fianna Fáil stalwart Pádraig Flynn – become half-owner of a substantial sea-view home in rural Mayo previously owned by Mr Gaughan.
Her co-owner of the sea-view home, which is in Mr Gaughan’s home town of Doohoma, is a former associate of the developer.
As part of the house transfer Mr Gaughan retained a legal right to live in it for the rest of his life.
In her 2010 declaration of interests – completed retrospectively in early 2011 – Beverley Flynn did not include her part ownership of the Doohoma property, despite acquiring her share of it in April 2010, when she was a sitting TD.
Under ethics legislation all Oireachtas members must disclose any land interests worth in excess of €13,000.
Ms Flynn ceased to be a member of the Dáil after the February 2011 general election but was nevertheless required to file a declaration of interests for the previous year.
Mr Gaughan also transferred 50hectares of development land in Castlebar to Ms Flynn in 2012.
This transfer involved the consolidation of lands owned by him personally and by his company, TJ Gaughan Construction, into a folio now owned by Ms Flynn.
Prior to his bankruptcy Mr Gaughan also sold a number of foreign assets in Poland and Spain. One of his Spanish companies, Linda Vista Enterprises, was wound up voluntarily after its assets – beach-side development land and villas – were sold in March and April 2013.
One of those assets was a €2m coastal villa.
It was here that the MoS caught up with Pádraig Flynn when he and his wife were staying there during the fall-out from the Mahon Tribunal findings.
The MoS has also confirmed that a Polish company owned by Mr Gaughan, Emerald Construction and Property Development, was also sold to a new owner in 2013.
The company is building and selling 70 apartments in the Polish city of Lodz. When contacted by the MoS in Warsaw, the new owner, Adam Paszkowski, declined to say how much he paid Mr Gaughan for the firm. But he did confirm that he had purchased the firm from Mr Gaughan.
Nama told the MoS it could not comment when asked if it had authorised the transfers and whether they had resulted in any outstanding debts being repaid by Mr Gaughan.
Unusually, given the extent of his debts, the UK petition for Mr Gaughan’s bankruptcy was lodged by a creditor who was owed just €15,560, compared with the €40m owed to AIB (now in Nama) and a further €2m owed to Ulster Bank.
Now, having exited bankruptcy six months ago, Mr Gaughan is completely debt-free and poised to launch a new property business.
Company records show he formed a new company, Tony Gaughan Construction and Property Development Ltd, in February 23.
Although another Castlebar native, Martin J Hopkins, is a fellow director the firm is fully owned by Mr Gaughan.
When approached by the MoS this week Mr Hopkins said he had worked as a labourer for Mr Gaughan for 29 years.
It is not known what projects the company may be planning and to date no planning applications in the name of the firm appear to have have been filed in Co. Mayo.
One possibility could involve the 50 hectares transferred to Ms Flynn – with whom he shares a luxury €1m home outside Castlebar called Windsor.
But Mr Gaughan denied this week that his new firm would seek to develop these lands.
The land is close to an industrial estate built by Mr Gaughan which is now in the control of a receiver appointed by Nama.
Last year the receiver applied for an extension of the planning permission granted on the site in an apparent effort to maximise its sale value.
