Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 14 May 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Paul Dobey:

If we were concerned about going concern on any of our banks and we were concerned in relation to AIB and a number of our other banks, we took certain steps. In 2008, we took steps to obtain assurances from the Financial Regulator and that was to address just what ... make sure they were aware of what the Financial Regulator was aware of. We spoke to the Central Bank because we wanted to understand ELA and the information ... what dialogue was going on between the Central Bank and the euro system. And we did that in 2008 and we got the assurances we need from the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Ireland and we also spoke to the Department in relation to capital. Now, when we came along ... and we, therefore, concluded that those banks were going concerns, that there wasn't a significant ... there wasn't a matter that cast a significant doubt on their ability to continue as a going concern because if we had concluded that there was such a matter, we would have included an emphasis of matter in our reports. When we got out to 2010, we sought ... sorry, in 2009 we got the same assurances, we had the same concerns and when we got out to 2010, I think, maybe we were just after an election ... there wasn't a Minister for Finance in place and we didn't get the assurances that we required and we did put an emphasis of matter paragraph into the accounts for a number of banks ... that we audited.

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