Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

According to my information, the creditors in whose favour these instruments were executed did not include Anglo Irish Bank or parties associated with it.

In regard to a former Secretary General of my Department, I have no information on that issue. I am not aware that a former Secretary General was involved with the Quinn Group at any stage.

As to gifts between companies, Deputy Burton is correct that tax implications may arise. There would also be a fundamental incapacity for a company to make a gift out of its own capital. However, this is altogether separate from the core question of a regulated insurance business which has to maintain its own capital levels. This is where the difficulty arises for the regulator.

On the Deputy's question on the United Kingdom position, I outlined the nature of the business in that country. It involves routine insurance activities and is not unduly hazardous. I understand the regulator took the view in his application that the UK operation was loss making in general and, therefore, it was not desirable to continue taking business there. As the Deputy noted, he may have been influenced by a more general concern about a possible reaction by a regulatory authority in another jurisdiction but the administrator is happy to permit the bulk of the business located in this State to continue for the present and to apply to the court on that basis. As I outlined in my earlier reply, the company remains in a position to pay policy makers and the concern for solvency ratios is contingent rather than actual in respect of any claim falling due now.

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