Alan Dukes critical of Michael Noonan’s negative IBRC comments

Former IBRC chairman Alan Dukes has blamed “negative” comments by Finance Minister Michael Noonan about the bank for “unjustified hostility or a plain lack of comprehension on the part of current and former senior officials of the Department of Finance”.

In a statement to the Banking Inquiry responding to evidence given by Mr Noonan to it on September 10, Mr Dukes said parts of the finance minister’s evidence “seems to me to be based on an inaccurate interpretation of events”.

“With the sole exception of his remarks in the Dáil when proposing the bill to liquidate the bank in February 2013, the minister’s public references to the bank have tended to be negative,” said Mr Dukes. “At one point, he used the words ‘criminality’ and ‘wrongdoing’. I believe this is largely due to unjustified hostility or a plain lack of comprehension on the part of current and former senior officials of the Department of Finance who lacked the understanding and the capacity to use constructively the abilities of a group of people who took on a difficult and challenging task and who served the State well.”