Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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In regard to IBRC, Irish Nationwide Building Society and Anglo Irish Bank accounted for something like €35 billion or €36 billion. The bank was liquidated and KPMG provided the liquidator. Essentially, the debate here has been in terms of oversight and a committee of selection, which was resisted by the Department. The longer this goes on, the more expensive it is going to be, because there will be liabilities. Looking at section 3.2 on page 14, a number of sets of legal proceedings are either concluded or under way. A new set of proceedings was brought against IBRC during 2020. I think we need to get some sort of understanding of what the wind-down will look like, what has taken place, what has delayed it in recent years and whether it has impacted on getting best value for the assets that are being disposed of, given the magnitude of it. I do not know whether representatives of IBRC ever appeared in front of the Committee of Public Accounts. I propose that they be brought in front of the committee to explore the issue because of the fact that it is elongated. The longer it goes on, the more expensive it is going to be. That obviously impacts the bottom line in terms of the taxpayer getting the full value. Cases have to be taken but we need to have an understanding of it.