Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

With regard to the transaction in question, as I said already, throughout last year the institutions were in a stressed condition and requests were made by the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator for the institutions to support themselves. That is not a feature of banking practice unique to Ireland. A feature of banking practice which took place in all European countries last year and this year was requests that banks mutually support each other in the context of their liquidity.

The transaction identified in the report excited interest in my Department and was referred to the Financial Regulator. The Financial Regulator has not to date reported on the transaction. When the matter came to my attention in January I insisted that following nationalisation of the bank, the incoming board would deal with this issue and it has done so. On the amounts involved, I cannot provide that information today. Obviously, the information I have given is put on the record of the House with the consent of the bank.

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