Taoiseach defends timing of commission of inquiry into IBRC
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has defended the timing of the setting up a commission of inquiry into the wind-down of the former Anglo Irish Bank.
Opposition parties have rounded on the Government claiming it has dragged its feet for months and should have set up the inquiry when questions first emerged.
However, Mr Kenny said the establishment of the inquiry now was the “right thing to do”. He said a justice of the court would now oversee an independent commission of inquiry.
However, he stressed that there was no evidence of any wrongdoing.
Inquiry will look back to Anglo wind-down
The inquiry into the former Anglo after it was nationalised follows repeated questions over the sale of the debt-laden Siteserv company to billionaire media and telecoms tycoon Denis O’Brien.
There have been claims that shareholders earned €5 million in the deal despite the company being on the verge of going bust, and that the winning bid was not the highest on the table.
The planned inquiry will also cover the wind-down of Anglo Irish Bank, from its nationalisation on January 21 2009, through its rebranding as the IBRC to February 7, 2013, when liquidators were appointed.
Its main focus is on any deals which may have cost the State millions.
It will also look into claims by Independent TD Catherine Murphy, who used parliamentary privilege to make allegations of changes to interest rates on loans.
It will investigate up to 40 transactions by IBRC, and the Government claims it will be complete by the end of the year. Anglo was bailed out by the State to the tune of €29 billion.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin has accused the Government of continuing to mislead the public after confirmation the Department of Finance had discovered minutes of an IBRC board meeting on the Siteserv sale.
“The way this continues to be handled falls well short of what the public expect,” he said.
“The Government clearly hope that they have drawn a line under the crisis with the announcement of a commission of inquiry. But the efforts we have seen to mislead the public have actually raised yet more questions to which we need answers.”
He also said the explanations for the Government’s decision to order a commission of inquiry beggared belief and that the concerns raised by Ms Murphy and others were raised by civil servants.
“The information only emerged though FOI requests. This was a major error of political judgment that is now being compounded by the failure of ministers to be honest about that error,” Mr Martin said.
Mr Martin's comments follow the emergence today of a timeline of parliamentary questions raised by Independent TD Catherine Murphy concerning the sale of Siteserv.
