Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Chairman, May I ask a question on this important and significant amendment? In this country we have had and have in process a great deal of correction of accounts because we have moved from a situation ten years ago of wholesale collapses which resulted in very significant losses to a lot of companies, including financial companies, in particular. In some cases, we know subsequently - but we do not know the extent of it - that there were errors and misrepresentations and so on in accounts because some cases have come before the law in different adoptions of different treatments, for example how loans were treated in Anglo Irish Bank. Consequent on that and into the future - I tabled a related amendment - there will be situations where financial companies such as banking companies will have large accumulated losses.

I raised this issue with the Minister's predecessor and I was given very detailed information. The amount of the accumulated losses, some of which arise from errors committed some time ago, are very valuable to the banks concerned. What is the position in respect of looking back? In particular, are these companies to be allowed to carry these losses, some of which arose as a result of all types of accounting errors and so on, into the future indefinitely? The amount at issue runs to many billions.