Noonan defends ‘sweetener’ of €5m

The controversial decision to give shareholders in the bankrupt firm Siteserv a €5m “sweetener” as taxpayers took a massive loss on its sale has been defended by Finance Minister Michael Noonan.

As the Government came under intensive fire for its handling of the sell-off by IBRC — formerly Anglo Irish Bank — which left the State €105m down, Mr Noonan insisted he did the best job he could.

While Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the deal would be examined by the Comptroller & Auditor General, opposition parties called for a more far-reaching probe into the affair.

Despite Mr Kenny’s comments, there was confusion about whether the C&AG had sufficient powers to conduct such a probe.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS

Public accounts committee chairman John McGuinness and Independent TD Catherine Murphy queried whether the State’s financial watchdog’s remit would cover the events as they involved a private company.

A Government spokesperson said the details of a probe had yet to be finalised.

As the controversy dominated the Dáil for the second day, opposition leaders put Mr Kenny under fresh pressure to explain why a call from Finance Department officials for an independent commercial review of the deal had been ignored by Mr Noonan.

Details of the agreement, issued to Independent TD Catherine Murphy under Freedom of Information, show that Finance Department experts repeatedly warned about the nature of the deal which saw IBRC sell Siteserv to a company controlled by tycoon Denis O’Brien for €45m, even though that was not the highest bid.

A subsidiary of the company went on to land a lucrative deal as the biggest supplier of water meters.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin expressed outrage that shareholders were given a €5m “sweetener” payment to approve the deal as he pointed to the role of financial firm Davy.

“The advisers to the shareholders were Davy, and it has transpired that some of the shareholders are clients of Davy,” Mr Martin said.

Mr Noonan said the €5m payment went ahead because any delay to the sale would increase the cost to taxpayers.

He also said he had not been made aware of the Siteserv sale until after more than €100m of its debts were written off after the transaction happened.

New information set to be released under FoI today is set to reveal more about the meetings held on the issue between Mr Noonan and the chiefs at IBRC who included former Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes.

Mr Martin expressed concern that any investigation by the C&AG would be too narrow as doubts were expressed about which parts of the controversy would fall under the remit of the State’s financial watchdog.

Mr Noonan insisted he had been assured by Mr Dukes that the Siteserv deal was in the best interest of the State and therefore an independent review was not needed.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams demanded to know what other transactions Finance Department officials had raised concerns about.

Mr Kenny hit back at Mr Adams, branding him the “ultimate hypocrite”.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS