Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 15 July 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. John Corrigan:

No, but the Libyan ... I know we can all look at this with the benefit of hindsight what's happened in Libya. But certainly, the Libyan Investment Authority were a very highly-regarded sovereign investment fund and had a very substantial diversified portfolio of investments globally. So again, to the best of my recollection, we would have checked with the Department of Foreign Affairs as to the appropriateness and ... of ... from a political point of view, if I can use that term, of engaging with the Libyans and they were comfortable for us to do so. In the event, the Libyans didn't ... they didn't pursue the negotiations and the reason they didn't pursue the negotiations is because they couldn't be comfortable around a third round of recapitalisation which might arise and they weren't prepared to write a blank cheque-----