TD: €31bn Anglo deal presented as ‘fait accompli’

The issuing of €31bn promissory notes in favour of Anglo Irish Bank and other financial institutions by the minister for finance in 2010, Brian Lenihan, involved an unconstitutional allocation of public money without a Dáil vote, lawyers for Independent TD Joan Collins told the Supreme Court.

Ms Collins’ case is an “enormous” one with “enormous implications”, her counsel John Rogers said. It was about the “very hub” of the financial running of the State, “the gearbox whose fine synchronisation is critical to the running of the State”.

Her core argument is that the 2008 Credit Institutions (Financial Stabilisation) Act impermissibly gave the minister power to decide, without Dáil approval, how much the banks needed to meet the regulatory requirements necessary to keep trading. It is not constitutionally permissible for the Oireachtas to empower the minister to enter into “effectively unlimited” commitments on behalf of the State without any, or any meaningful, constraint or oversight.