The Irish Times published a second story today on the Estate Agent market manipulation scandal. Its story yesterday, along with a tiny item in the Indo, noted that the National Consumer Agency had demanded a meeting with the industry. Ann Fitzgerald of the NCA certainly throws some fire in the first IT article:

“is extremely serious from our perspective”, said Ms Fitzgerald. “It is the equivalent of creating a false market in the price of shares, which is illegal.”

Day Two, we get a seeming promise of aggressive action:

THE NATIONAL Consumer Agency (NCA) has given estate agents just two days to provide it with undertakings that published price details of properties sold through private treaty or withdrawn from auction will be “absolutely accurate”.

A 48 hour deadline! “Absolutely accurate”! Undertakings! Yeah! Let’s git em! Who’s got a rope? Unless of course this is more heat than light…oh.

Only one problem. On RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today she made clear that the undertaking is about FUTURE listings of sale price information. She says that when estage agents “publish” such information in the newspapers that - from now on - it’d better be true.

So, no redress or penalty for those who used national newspapers to manipulate the property market by what Ann Fitzgerald suggests are illegal means. Hmmm.

Two problems. One, this is a nice PR job for the agencies that - presumably - might have been paying attention to this before. It’s not like people haven’t been talking about this for a while. (See: The Property Pin) She’s signalling that she has no stomach for going further.

Second problem: It’s an even better PR job for the newspapers. The estate agents don’t “publish” in the newspaper. The newspaper is the subject for that verb. The newspaper is the legal actor and is who’s responsible. If estate agents list sale prices on their own website, then they have “published”.

There’s no earthly reason the newspapers should be let off the hook. From January 1 of this year, the newspapers are bound by the Code of Practice of the Press Council.

Now I hate the idea of a Press Council, but it’s there now, so I’d rather see it used for something important, not a tool for politicians to block corruption investigations. Here’s a peek at the Code:

Principle 1 − Truth and Accuracy
1.1 In reporting news and information, newspapers and periodicals shall strive at all times for truth and accuracy.

1.2 When a significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distorted report or picture has been published, it shall be corrected promptly and with due prominence.

1.3 When appropriate, a retraction, apology, clarification, explanation or response shall be published promptly and with due prominence.

Principle 2 − Distinguishing Fact and Comment
2.1 Comment, conjecture, rumour and unconfirmed reports shall not be reported as if they were fact, but newspapers and periodicals are entitled to advocate strongly their own views on topics.

It seems to me that somebody might do well to go through the sale prices listed in national newspapers over the last four months and make a complaint. A comment on the previous post suggested that a casual look revealed wildly different reported sale prices on the same property in the Sunday Business Post versus the Sunday Tribune. So the Irish Times is far from alone.

If a politician can be investigated and made answerable for lodgments made 15 years ago, surely the newspapers that covered it should be willing - eager - to account for their role in inflating the property bubble? Particularly if they were accomplices, even unwitting, to a massive effort to manipulate the market?

In the meantime, there’s no reason to wait for a Press Council investigation. The Irish Times, INM, Thomas Crosbie Holdings and the rest could quite simply start their own investigation. What did editors know and when did they know it? How many false prices did the papers peddle?

Otherwise, if I were a Fianna Fail TD pissed about the Tribunals, I’d call for a new one, investigating corruption in the broader property market and all its players. Stop laughing.

PS - to the Estate Agents (we have the IP address, silly) who tried to leave comments under pseudonym here - sign your own fucking name and real email address and we’ll publish non-defamatory comments. Otherwise, slither back into your swamp.