Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Quinn Insurance and Insurance Compensation Fund: Discussion

3:00 pm

Mr. Michael McAteer:

I will accept it from €600 million upwards. It is important to note the we indicated that the call on the fund would be zero within six to ten weeks of our appointment. At that stage, we had been presented with numbers which showed this company to be a solvent financial enterprise. We had engaged the services of EMB but we had not yet received its report. When the report appeared, it provided the first indication that there was something wrong in the context of the reserving of the business. With regard to the figures of €600 million up to €775 million, I am an officer of the court and it is my duty to inform the court at any particularly time of the information that has been presented to me. When the figures of €738 million and €775 million became available, I immediately informed the court about them. I did not wait to see whether they would rise or fall. I kept the court informed as the information was becoming available to me, which is my duty.