Over the next two decades the two brothers gradually built up the company by tapping into the slowly emerging Catholic middle class, (the majority of its competitors being run by Protestants).

It was also helped by Eugene Davy's contact's obtained through playing rugby, being capped 34 times for Ireland, acting as manager of the national team, and eventually becoming President of the IRFU.

In 2004, Davy opened an office in Cork providing wealth management and corporate finance services to clients in the Munster region.

In 2006, it became independent again following a management and staff buy-out of the company with loans provided by Anglo Irish Bank for €316 million, a figure acknowledged to reflect top of market conditions.

The platform – which cost Davy €10 million to develop – was modelled on UK online fund selection sites which captured 20 per cent of the market in five years.

Davy called for the abolition of exit charges by all pension providers "so that consumers can invest on the basis of performance and service and not be restricted by anti-consumer lock-in agreements".

[17] In 2018, Davy along with Bastow Charleton Wealth Management (BCWM) were appointed by the liquidator of Custom House Capital to take over the return and administration of client funds following the collapse of the company following a fraud.

Davy admitted that its representatives in 1999 devised a Liechtenstein based tax evasion scheme uncovered by the public service broadcaster, RTÉ.

The Chairman of one of the Credit Unions who suffered large losses told his members The failure to publish the reports is to place the complaints process in a shroud of secrecy.

The Exchange stated that it was satisfied that Davy had taken appropriate remedial action to ensure that internal controls and conduct of business procedures had been rectified to mitigate against any recurrence of the breaches discovered.

[39] In April 2014 a young man described as "very vulnerable" with intellectual and other difficulties having suffered two strokes by the age of ten was awarded more than €2m by the High Court after the stockbroking engaged in "deliberate neglect" and breach of duty of care in encouraging him to invest large amounts of his inherited €5m monies in "seriously risky" contracts for difference resulting in substantial investment losses.

The only child aged just 20 when he began his investment relationship with Davy using some €5m inherited from his dead parents, was "not a person in the full of their intellectual, physical and mental health", the judge said and "should have been obvious to any observer of average perception" and many tests carried out on him showed "alarming degrees of impairment".

In responses to parliamentary questions posed, the Department of Finance said that Carville had declared a potential conflict of interest arising from his involvement with Siteserv before he joined.

The government said he "has not been involved in any issues on the Siteserv transaction" such as approving parliamentary questions, reviewing freedom of information requests and all internal discussions on the matter.

Catherine Murphy, the Independent TD who was prominent in querying the role of the department and state-owned IBRC in selling Siteserv at a €105 million loss to taxpayers, had further answers to parliamentary questions submitted to Noonan.

Following the investigation by the Central Bank of Ireland and the issuing of the fine many of the senior executive team were forced to resign and the business was put up for sale.