Noonan under pressure to address Siteserv questions
A Dáil debate will take place on the controversial sale by IBRC, formerly Anglo Irish Bank. Separately, it has also emerged in the wake of the Siteserv controversy that talks between IBRC and the Quinn family to settle a multi-billion euro court battle have broken off.
IBRC former chairman Alan Dukes said at the weekend the bank had given the department monthly updates on deals and its activities. But Mr Noonan’s officials said the earliest record his department had of Siteserv is dated in late-March 2012, a few days after IBRC approved its sale.
This contradiction and others issues, including records of meetings between the department and IBRC, concerns about a spike in share trading of the construction support company before its sale as well as whether Mr Noonan’s department revealed everything it knew on the Dáil record, are expected to be pursued by opposition TDs this week.
Fianna Fáil’s motion, scheduled for Wednesday, will also focus on the €5 million ‘sweetener’ paid to IBRC’s shareholders before the sale and why some companies were excluded from bidding for it.
The party wants a full independent inquiry into the Siteserv sale as well as other IBRC deals.
Mr Noonan has asked IBRC’s liquidators to complete a review — overseen by a judge — by August.
The minister disagreed yesterday that he or his officials had withheld details or concerns which have now emerged about the sale of Siteserv to a company controlled by Denis O’Brien.
He insisted he had supplied all details available to Independent TD Catherine Murphy, who has led the questioning about the €45m deal. “As soon as I had information, I gave it out,” he told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics.
“What I didn’t give out was background information and the deputy [Ms Murphy] knew quite well she could get back information by way of a freedom of information request. She did a great job from a scrutiny point of view, but I did a reasonable job as well co-operating with her under the parliamentary rules.”
Meanwhile, junior finance minister Simon Harris has confirmed that talks between IBRC and the Quinn family over setting a huge court battle with the state have broken off.
Following the Siteserv controversy, it was reported yesterday that the Department of Finance has blocked the proposed deal, meaning that the Quinns multi-billion euro legal battle against Anglo and the state will now go before the courts. Mr Harris confirmed this to RTÉ yesterday.
The case by the Quinns was being taken over IBRC’s seizure of the family’s assets due to the non-repayment of loans originally issued by Anglo.
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