BROADCASTER AND JOURNALIST Ivan Yates is taking a High Court action against Allied Irish Bank (AIB).
Yates, together with his wife Deirdre, lodged proceedings against the bank on Wednesday.
At such early stages, it’s unclear what the exact nature of the legal proceedings are.
A spokesperson for AIB said that the bank “does not comment on individual cases”.
Yates himself told TheJournal.ie that he was unable to comment.
Both he and his wife went through significant financial difficulties from the beginning of the recession in late 2008.
Following the liquidation after 24 years of the Celtic Bookmakers betting chain in 2011, of which Yates had been both chairman and managing director, the presenter spent some time in the UK where he declared bankruptcy (he emerged from same in September 2013).
AIB had previously attempted to have him declared bankrupt in Ireland in 2012 only for that bid to fail in the High Court (at the time UK laws on bankruptcy were a deal less stringent than their equivalents in Ireland).
The bank did, however, secure a €1.6 million debt judgement against Deirdre Yates, a former primary school teacher, on foot of a guarantee she gave on an expansion of loans to Celtic Bookmakers in April 2010.
A former Fine Gael minister and TD, Yates is one of Ireland’s best-known media personalities.
He served as a TD for Wexford between 1979 and 2002 before moving into broadcast media with Newstalk from 2009, initially as presenter of the station’s flagship morning show Newstalk Breakfast.
He has recently taken up a new role with the station, presenting the drivetime show The Hard Shoulder, while together with Today FM’s Matt Cooper he has taken over the reins of TV3′s Tonight Show after Vincent Browne stepped down from the late night presenting slot.
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