Siteserv - Village Magazine

52May 2015

HE agendas and non-agendas

associated with Ireland’s most

powerful media owner, Denis

O’Brien, are so complex that

Village decided to try to bring

some loose science to bear from a survey

of newspaper coverage and front pages.

The latest round of the Siteserv story

broke on  April when Ministerial

brieﬁng notes, prepared by oﬃcials at

the Department of Finance were

released to Catherine Murphy TD, and

printed in the Sunday Times, revealing

concerns within the department that “a

large number of transactions were

poorly executed” by state-owned IBRC

(Irish Bank Resolution Corporation,

formerly Anglo Irish Bank and Irish

Nationwide Building Society).

The reserved Irish Times took two

days to get stuck in to the issue but in

the subsequent two weeks published 

articles about Siteserv, mostly by its

business correspondents. Independent

newspapers, in which Denis O’Brien

holds a .% stake deemed ‘uncontrol-

ling’, printed just  in the same period,

only eight of which were in its business

pages.

Agenda-serve. By Gerard Cunningham and Michael Smith

Siteserv

Also in this section:

Old radio 54

MEDIA

May 2015 53

On Sunday  April, the Sunday

Times, which had set the ball rolling the

previous week with “State memo slams

IBRC Siteserv deal’ led now with “Share

trades spike before Siteserv deal”,

reporting a potentially incendiary

“sharp rise” in shares traded in the

days before IBRC received bids for the

company.

“State should probe AIB and Nama

write-oﬀs”, the Sunday Business Post

blared across eight columns in a twin-

deck headline, reporting Mike

Aynsley’s call to widen the inquiry into

debt write-oﬀs beyond Siteserv and

IBRC, part of an extended interview

they carried with the enraged former

IBRC boss. The Post also revealed “big

business names” who beneﬁted from

debt writedowns from the former Anglo

bank, including Denis O’Brien, TV,

and Sean Quinn’s family.

The Irish Times doesn’t publish on

Sundays, but the previous day’s Week-

end Edition was still demurely on the

shelves as the Sundays paraded their

biases. It led with “IBRC declined to

appoint senior civil servant to board,

says Dukes”.

Only the Sunday Independent failed

to lead with the story, preferring to go

with promised pay rises for public

sector workers based on brieﬁngs from

unnamed “senior cabinet sources” and

a “senior minister” in the lead-up to the

Spring Statement. Siteserv did make the

Independent’s front page, but below the

fold, in a somewhat tangential story

headlined “Revealed: Dukes wanted to

oust Noonan’s man in IBRC”.

Between the covers, the Irish Times

and Sunday Independent each devoted

a full page to the story, while the

Sunday Business Post spread its Ayns-

ley interview over two pages. In a

column dealing with the latest opinion

poll results, Pat Rabbitte wondered if

the Siteserv story might have contrib-

uted to the government’s declining

numbers. The Sunday Independent

inside followed the theme of its front-

page story, concentrating on the rift

between IBRC and the Department of

Finance. The Irish Times also has a

opinion column on the subject (two if

you include Stephen Collins’ article,

which really centred on the Oireachtas

banking inquiry). The Sunday Times

carried a full page of coverage on page

, and another on the Dukes story. The

Sunday Times capped oﬀ its coverage

with an editorial drawing a line back to

the Moriarty tribunal, framing the

story pointedly around the long-term

relationship between Denis O’Brien and

Fine Gael, and the need for care from

the Taoiseach.

There is a maxim in politics, coined

by British Labour party director of

communications Alastair Campbell,

that “no minister can survive beyond a

two-week feeding frenzy in the press”.

Two of the three Sunday broadsheets

– the Sunday Times and Sunday Busi-

ness Post – led with Siteserv related

stories for the second week on  May.

The Sunday Times’ “Noonan kept in

dark about Siteserv deal” again seemed

particularly toxic to IBRC and its indul-

gence of O’Brien.

The Sunday Independent opted for

the Lenihan family’s ongoing eﬀorts to

protect Brian Lenihan’s reputation.

Maeve Sheehan had another Siteserv

story on page , though it was double-

edged with a sense that the pursuit of

the Siteserv issue was prejudicing the

possibility of IBRC getting a deal with

the Quinn family, even though that

might perhaps be in the public interest.

The article also drew attention to the

added conﬂict for KPMG , the account-

ancy ﬁrm appointed to review all major

IBRC discounted sales including Site-

serv, by virtue of KPMG having been

paid €, fees by Siteserv after it

was liquidated.

The business section, even ﬁrebrand

TD Shane Ross whom radio comedian

Oliver Callan has been ridiculing for his

long-standing awareness of where his

bread is buttered, again failed to

advance the scandal, though it did print

a self-justifying interview with Alan

Dukes, who downplayed it and feels he

is being made a scapegoat.

The inquiry ensures this issue will

run. It is fortunate for Noonan that it is

not a minister who is the object of this

particular feeding frenzy. Some organs

appear more ﬁred up by Siteserv than

others. It will be interesting to hear how

RTÉ, which was really very slow oﬀ the

mark on the issue, and the Business

Post, state their agendas in defending

imminent proceedings from O’Brien

who claims there is no public interest in

publishing private details of his bank-

ing arrangements with IBRC.

Faced with accumulating antago-

nism, it may be fortunate for Mr O’Brien

that the newspaper group he owns but

does not control seems protective of

him. •

The

Sindo

business

section, even

ﬁrebrand TD

Shane Ross

whom radio

comedian

Oliver Callan

has been

ridiculing

for his long-

standing

awareness

of where

his bread

is buttered,

again failed to

advance the

scandal

“