Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 14 May 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Paul Dobey:

Yes. There needs to be ... I need to put some perspective on this. The ... the reason we look at going concern is because financial statements are prepared on a basis that assumes the company, or the bank, is going to continue as a going concern. If you were assume it wasn't going to continue as a going concern, then you would record the assets at mark to market value, we record addition ... liabilities associated, wind-up ... you'd effectively account for the bank on liquidation basis. So the reason we look at going concern is to assess, one, whether going concern is appropriate, and if it's not, you ... you measure the assets and liabilities on a totally different basis, that's the first point. The second point is, if you believe there to be an uncertainty around going concern, a significant uncertainty, that may cast doubt on that basis of preparation, then you're required to put an emphasis of matter, and if you disagree with the going concern basis of preparation you ... you qualify your opinion. I think your ... I'd make a distinction between is it appropriate to ... that the financial statements be prepared on the going concern basis from ... does this entity need more capital? Which it obvious did need from the Government, but we got assurances around that. But, based on the assurances we got, the, it would not be allowed to fall over assurance, if I can put it that way, we were satisfied that it was appropriate to ... that the accounts would be prepared on a going concern basis.

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