Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will do my best. I have had a glance of this only in the last 20 minutes. Essentially, in a liquidation the unsecured creditors, which can include trade creditors, come together and employ the liquidator - Revenue is regularly involved - to look after their interests and recover as much money as possible for them. The Minister is saying that when the Department came to the IBRC it had been nationalised. The Government decided to liquidate it, and it was clear at that stage that the only unsecured creditor likely to be standing at the end of the liquidation process was the State, which is now the case. The Minister is saying there is only one unsecured creditor, namely, the Minister for Finance acting on behalf of all the citizens of Ireland. The Government is therefore saying it disapplied the Companies Act committee of inspection provisions that would apply in a normal liquidation because this liquidation was different in that there was only one unsecured creditor, namely, the Minister for Finance as the shareholder. He is therefore saying he is the committee of inspection and the only one looking for money at the end of this process to come back to him on behalf of us. He is saying the Department took over the job of the committee of inspection. That job would normally be done by a committee of several creditors. I am explaining this as best I can. I am not defending the Minister's position but outlining it to Deputy Connolly as I read it. The Oireachtas agreed to this, which is the other point.