McDonald calls for full commission of investigation into Siteserv and IBRC

Tánaiste Joan Burton said the Government must now establish what would be the best form any proposed inquiry would take.

“It’s a matter of identifying what is the best mechanism for … a proper inquiry, an independent inquiry, by a competent authority,” she said.

“And I don’t want to rule on that at this point in time, because, as you have just said, the amount of material has come into the public domain (sic).”

Joan Burton on the defensive - dodging the issues re IBRC., Siteserv etc. Govt under pressure

— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) April 23, 2015

Earlier today, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald

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Deputy McDonald said that a full independent inquiry to examine a range of IBRC transactions, including the sale of Siteserv, is now needed.

“More than €64m was written off in Blue Ocean Associates before being purchased by a consortium also involving, as it happens, Denis O’Brien,” she said.

“There was an almost 50% write-down of €300m in debts in the purchase of Topaz.

“Mr O’Brien, as it happens, was also involved.”

The Public Accounts Committee is to begin its own enquiries into the handling of the Siteserv sale by IBRC.

The committee is asking the Department of Finance to release all its documents outlining concerns about Siteserv and other assets sold by IBRC.

Dáil response from Taoiseach & Tánaiste on #siteserv is so disingenuous and very disturbing. This is exactly what gives politics a bad name

— Róisín Shortall (@RoisinShortall) April 23, 2015

Chairman John McGuinness said the committee could begin hearings with the Department as early as next month.

"They're due before us on the 17th of May, and it's possible that I think that if we flag it for them that we can deal with the issues generally from a department's perspective" he said.

“But we don't have a role in relation to private companies and that has to be made clear.”