Dukes: We went to 'great trouble' to provide Anglo tapes to gardaí
Alan Dukes has said he was among the board members at Anglo Irish bank who handed over taped conversations of senior bankers to gardaí.
The former public interest director at Anglo, who went on to be chairman of the rebranded Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, said he had been aware of the leaked recorded conversations between executives at the height of the 2008 bank crisis.
"Not only those tapes, but other tapes and other material was all part of the material that we went to great trouble in the bank to provide to the Garda Bureau of Fraud investigation and the director of corporate enforcement in the context of the investigation they launched in February 2009," he added.
Sinn Féin yesterday raised concerns about the politically appointed board member - a former leader of Fine Gael - and whether he knew the tape recordings existed.
The former executive said the recordings were made before he was appointed to the lender, and that he had not listened to all the contents of them.
He refused to comment on precise disclosures leaked in recent weeks for fear of prejudicing any legal proceedings, but warned there is more the public should learn when evidence is brought out in the courts.
Speaking out for the first time since the scandal broke, Mr Dukes said sourcing material for investigators had been a lengthy and demanding process and that staff members would have been questioned at the time and would have known what was being handed over.
He admitted he never told Ministers at the time about the tapes as it was "not their business" to get involved with the criminal investigation.
Elsewhere he said the tapes would have been made available to other inquiries, but that he never told them about them as he was not specifically asked.
"I don't know what any of the other inquiries did about those tapes, I'd have to refer back to those inquiries," he added on RTÉ radio.
"I rather doubt the Garda Bureau of Fraud investigation and the director of corporate enforcement would have shown all that material to those inquiries.
"You'll have to ask the people who did those inquiries."
Mr Dukes added that he will participate in any future inquiries, just as the board had co-operated with gardaí, Oireachtas committees and other probes by Irish and international finance experts.
