The broadcaster, media coach and former Fine Gael government minister Ivan Yates (66) is a director of companies involved in media, event hosting, property development and operating a stud farm, according to public documents.
A TD for Wexford between 1981 and 2002, Mr Yates filed for bankruptcy in Wales in 2012 having accumulated significant debts with the collapse of his Celtic Bookmakers business. His move to Wales meant that he emerged from bankruptcy within a year.
He had already begun a new career in the media, working as a presenter with Newstalk radio, and he resumed this role after emerging from bankruptcy while also offering his services as an event speaker, something he continues to do.
After it was reported recently that Mr Yates had given coaching to Fianna Fáil presidential candidate Jim Gavin, he was dropped from the Path to Power podcast, which he co-hosted with Matt Cooper. The podcast is produced by the Noel Kelly agency, which acts for Mr Yates, but had not been told about his coaching Mr Gavin.
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Newstalk, where Mr Yates worked as an occasional presenter having stepped down from presenting shows on the radio station in 2020, said it was conducting a review of the use of his services as a result of the controversy. He worked as a stand-in presenter for the station for three days during the presidential campaign without informing it of his coaching work with the Fianna Fáil candidate.
Company filings show Mr Yates is a director of four companies: ACSJY, Yewtree Infotainment, Golden Farm Thoroughbreds and Mortimer We Re Back. The first two are unlimited companies and so do not file financial accounts.
ACSJY was incorporated in 2013, is based in Blackstoops, Co Wexford, and is owned by four members of Mr Yates’s family. According to his LinkedIn profile, the company is associated with his work as a broadcaster, event speaker and columnist.
Yewtree, also based in Blackstoops, was incorporated in 2019, is owned by Mr Yates and his wife Deirdre and is involved in lobbying.
The lobbying register shows that during 2024 and 2025, Mr Yates and the company registered nine instances of lobbying for a wind energy company, Regnum Renewables Development Ltd, and one on behalf of a cashless parking business, UTS Technologies.
On behalf of Regnum Mr Yates met, on separate occasions, Graham Doyle, secretary general of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Paul Hogan, acting assistant secretary, and, in 2024, the then minister of State at the department, Alan Dillon, as well as the former Fine Gael TD for Wexford Paul Kehoe.
He also met the current Fine Gael TD for Wexford, Brian Brennan, and exchanged text messages with Stephen Kinsella, then the special adviser to the then taoiseach Simon Harris, according to the register.
The lobbying was in relation to policy on wind farm projects. The company hoped “to improve our chances of receiving a positive decision on future planning applications, on sites that do not currently have a favourable designation in the renewable energy strategy in their respective county development plans”, according to the register.
The register also shows meetings with Wexford councillors and the chief executive of the County Council, Eddie Taaffe, in relation to a proposed wind farm in Lyrane and Kilmichael Hill, in Co Wexford, as well as meetings with the then minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Niall Collins – Fianna Fáil TD for Co Limerick – as well as several Limerick councillors, in relation to a proposed wind farm in Rintulla and Tuogh, Co Limerick.
Mr Yates also lobbied officials in the Office of the Planning Regulator on behalf of Regnum, and met councillors in Co Clare about a proposed wind farm near Lissycasey, Co Clare. Emails and requests for a meeting were sent to Clare TDs Cathal Crowe (FF), Joe Cooney (FG), Donna McGettigan (SF) and Minister of State Timmy Dooley (FF).
In relation to UTS Technologies, the register shows that in August Mr Yates sent an email to Peter Walsh, CEO of Transport Infrastructure Ireland, in relation to how cashless parking contracts are awarded by 31 local authorities.
Mortimer We Re Back is a Cork-based building company incorporated in 2021. Mr Yates was its sole owner up to 2024, when he was replaced as owner by Cyril Barden (with an address in Portugal), Padraig Barden (Wexford), Stephen Quinn (Cork) and Seamus O’Ciosain (Cork).
The latest accounts, for the period to the end of April 2024, show Mortimer had assets of €2.9 million, including cash of €1 million, but debts that left the company with a deficit of €185,524. The debts include “other loans” of €1.4 million.
The company has a 2024 mortgage registered from Ingram Homes Ltd. Cyril Barden, David Barden (London) and Mr Yates, are directors of Ingram Homes, a building company owned by Cyril Barden that is currently finishing a major residential development at Water Rock, Midleton, Co Cork.
Ingram has one registered mortgage, from a company in Wales called Val Zie Consulting Ltd.
Mr Yates is a director of stud-farm operator Golden Farm Thoroughbreds Ltd, of Blackstoops House, Blackstoops, which had horses with a value of €704,605 at the end of 2024, according to its latest accounts.
The company has a non-interest-bearing loan of €105,000 from ACSJY, according to the accounts. ACSJY is among the shareholders of the stud operation.
