Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 20 April 2021
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised)
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source
The Minister, in fairness to him, is someone who has always been open to sharing information. I encourage him to publish the report.
I raise the acquisition of Goodbody Stockbrokers by AIB, or "Project Gold" as it was renamed, from "Project Oibre". The CEO of AIB wrote to the Minister on 8 January with a consent request. He said:
Under the terms of the State agreements, on completion of the transaction, Gold would be deemed a group company [Gold being Goodbody Stockbrokers] of AIB to which the remuneration provisions would apply. I am therefore seeking your consent that on acquisition Gold would be excluded from the definition of group company, solely for the purpose of remuneration provisions, and that none of the remuneration provisions will apply to Gold.
The Minister provided that consent on 2 March. On what grounds was he permitted to allow Project Gold or Goodbody Stockbrokers not to be considered a group company, as required under the 2010 placing agreement, which would have seen the excessive remuneration charge apply to Goodbody Stockbrokers?
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