Ex-FF TD Colm Keaveney had €1.23m debts after bankruptcy

Former Fianna Fáil TD Colm Keaveney became bankrupt, owing more than €1.23 million, after his creditors rejected a personal insolvency arrangement, court documents show.

The bankruptcy documents show he sought to make a personal insolvency arrangement earlier this year, under which repayments of unsecured and secured debts, including mortgages, can be agreed with creditors.

But at a meeting of his creditors, in March, the plan was rejected.

In a statement, sworn on May 20th, on his bankruptcy file, Mr Keaveney also said he could not make a personal insolvency arrangement because he was “living below the reasonable living expenses guidelines” issued by the Insolvency Service of Ireland.

The guidelines allow for expenses such as food, clothing, health, childcare and education, to be deducted from income before a sum is calculated that can be repaid to creditors.

“My circumstances and impecuniosity do not permit me to enter such an arrangement or to fully engage the services of a personal insolvency practitioner,” he said.

Mr Keaveney, who lives at Kilcreevanty, Tuam, Co Galway, lost his seat at the last election and is unemployed. He was adjudicated bankrupt on June 27th.

In his statement of affairs, Mr Keaveney said he had “€0” cash-in-hand. He was joint owner of his family home, valued at €130,000, but with a mortgage of more than €158,000.

His debts included a judgment mortgage of almost €1.03 million against him and his wife, Deirdre Keaveney, obtained by ACC Loan Management Ltd in 2010, following his failure to repay a loan.

Legal fees

The balance of his debts included personal loans from Ulster Bank and Bank of Scotland, a loan from St Jarlath’s Credit Union in Tuam of €16,525 and a bill for legal fees of more than €26,000, owed to “Catherine McDarby Solicitors”.

Documents show his personal insolvency arrangement was filed at the Circuit Court in Mayo.

When a vote was taken by creditors, at a meeting on March 16th, the holder of Mr Keaveney’s home mortgage, not named on file, voted in favour of the arrangement. Under insolvency rules, creditors, representing 65 per cent or more of the total amount of debts due must agree for an arrangement to be passed. In Mr Keaveney’s case, there was only 16 per cent agreement, so the arrangement was rejected.

A letter to Mr Keaveney from Stephen Curtis, personal insolvency practitioner with the Irish Mortgage Holders' Association, was also contained on the file, dated May 26th.

Mr Curtis said it was clear the terms under which ACC Loan Management would agree to a scheme of arrangement, were not possible for Mr Keaveney to deliver.

And “the original personal insolvency arrangement” was to be funded by a “lump sum from a third party” and this was “not acceptable to creditors”.

He said the vote to reject his arrangement could have been appealed, but was now out of time. And he said Mr Keaveney’s family home mortgages was “in difficulty” and would need to be dealt with. Bankruptcy was appropriate, it said.