DJ Carey secured 99.4% write-down of €9.5m AIB debt
Documents show One of Ireland's best-known GAA figures, DJ Carey, secured a settlement with AIB Bank in 2017 through which a debt of over €9.5m was written down to €60,000, according to documents seen by RTÉ's Prime Time.
This meant that Mr Carey had to pay just 0.63% of the original amount owed to the majority state-owned bank. The 99.37% reduction of Mr Carey’s debt of €9,528,411 was referred to in a settlement document as a "compromise". Mr Carey reached the settlement with AIB in April 2017.
The bank secured a High Court judgement for the €9.5m on 9 May 2011, mostly arising from a €7.85m loan to Mr Carey that was secured on properties at Mount Juliet in Kilkenny and the K Club in Kildare. In April 2018, a year after the write-down agreement, AIB wrote to the 52-year-old former Kilkenny hurler acknowledging that it had received the settlement funds and that they "have been accepted in full and final settlement of your liabilities with the bank in accordance with the terms of the settlement agreement".
The agreement also included a so-called "windfall" clause. That meant that if Mr Carey received cash or assets that caused an increase of €50,000 in his net asset value, the money received would have to be paid to AIB. The windfall clause, which covered any relevant "gift, award, inheritance, prize, lottery prize or gambling winnings" or "receipt or recovery," lapsed by April 2022.
Mr Carey, who won nine All Star awards in his career, had previously pledged publicly to repay as much of his debt as possible. In 2015, speaking on RTE’s Ray D'Arcy radio show, Mr Carey said: "I am not one of those who would say 'I don’t care’ about repaying debt". "You borrow money, it should be paid back" he said, adding that "to whatever extent that can be, I would still be conscious it has to be done".
DJ Carey did not respond to a request for an interview.