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

3:40 pm

Mr. Michael McAteer:

I will try to break down the number for the Deputy. It would have entailed more than 50 people at various stages over the past three years. Of the €14 million, more than €6 million of it basically was paid to our firm in the United Kingdom in respect of a full actuarial division of up to 15 actuaries at any one time working on the case because Quinn Insurance had no in-house actuarial division during the time it was trading. Consequently, €6 million of the figure of €14 million relates to the UK payment for actuarial fees. As for the total of €8 million, we also had a property portfolio, if one wishes to call it that, of more than €448 million. We had asset management and were obliged to get buildings ready for disposal. We sold the hotel in Cambridgeshire for £35 million last August. We have fundamental issues to walk through to get each of those assets ready for sale and to maximise the value for the taxpayer. It takes substantial time and effort to get the assets to its maximum value for sale. The figure of €8 million involves tax, forensics and asset management, as well as the core administration team that was involved in the day-to-day operation of the company itself in respect of both running it and on the sales side.