Eddie Hobbs

Infobox Person


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name = Eddie Hobbs
caption = Short Hands, Long Pockets: The Informed Guide to Debt and Spending (Eddie's Reddies S.)
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birth_date = October 11, 1962
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nationality = Irish flagicon|Ireland
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occupation = Celebrity Accountant
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Eddie Hobbs (born October 11, 1962) is an Irish celebrity accountant.

Early career

Hobbs was a non-executive director in the financial services firm Taylor Asset Management, which went bust when its founder Tony Taylor fled to the UK, following the theft of clients' funds in 1996 uncovered by an investigation led by Hobbs after he left the Taylor Group. (Hobbs himself was never implicated in any wrongdoing and in 2007 he was exonerated by the Irish High Court and praised by the presiding judge for showing "efficiency and determination and for not standing idly" when he pursued Taylor's activities from 1995 to 1996.) Hobbs continued to be both a financial adviser and a seller of financial software to both financial intermediaries and big financial service companies such as Eagle Star.

Television career

He presented the RTÉ show "Rip-Off Republic" in 2005, a show preoccupied with perceived high personal taxes, corporate profits and cartels/monopolies in Ireland. Prior to this, Hobbs presented the television show "Show Me the Money", where he helped various people, from farmers to hairdressers, to improve their finances. He has also presented a three-part programme, "30 Things to do with your SSIA", in which he gives a humorous list of ideas for spending the money held in a Special Savings Incentive Account. In "Show Me the Money" he repeatedly advised that property prices in Ireland are only going one way - down - and strongly advised against residential investment property purchase in Ireland. In 2007 property prices started to reverse. Hobbs owns two homes in Ireland, reportedly, worth over €3 million. One is just outside Kildare, Dublin while the other is on the south-west coast in the small, fishing village of Unionhall. An outspoken populist critic of the vested interests in Ireland, especially the producer groups who "control the country", Hobbs has often repeated that "There's one game in town: development." He speaks out against Jumbo mortgages and picks apart the arguments presented by the vested interests who wish to maintain the status quo, to whom he acts as financial consultant.

During the run up to the Irish General Election 2007, Eddie and his colleague Matt Cooper presented a political programme called Polls Apart on Irish TV station TV3, in which they interview the main Irish Political Parties' leaders about what they intend to do after the election, if they were to be deemed elected into government.

Other Career Information

It has been reported that the printing of the 9 September 2005 issue of the Irish current affairs magazine "Village" was halted after communication with Eddie Hobbs concerning an article on him.

Awards/Posts Held

Eddie Hobbs was awarded Honorary Patronage of TCD's University Philosophical Society in November 2005.

He was appointed by the Irish Government as a Director of the National Consumer Agency in 2007 having served on its interim board since 2005.

External links

* [http://www.eddiehobbs.com/ Eddie Hobbs' Website]
* [http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10002903.shtml Ireland Business News]