Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The information I have to brief me in replying to the question comes from the Central Bank; therefore, what I have stated is its view. According to the first point, RSA brought the findings of the internal audit report to the attention of the Central Bank as soon as they became known on 1 November 2013. The RSA group then took action and last week injected €100 million in capital after discussions with the Central Bank. The additional capital was taken with solvency capital requirements of 228% and is in excess of the 200% level required by the Central Bank. The RSA group has assured the Central Bank it will provide any further capital required, should it be necessary to do so at the end of the current investigation.

On 9 November RSA suspended three senior executives, namely, the chief executive, Mr. Philip Smyth; the chief financial officer, Mr. Rory O'Connor, and the claims director, Mr. Peter Burke, pending an investigation into issues involving its Irish claims and finance functions. RSA appointed the chief executive of its UK and western European division as acting head of the Irish business. Another gentleman, Mr. Rash, the group chief accountant, has taken over as acting chief financial officer, while Mr. Pitt, claims director for the UK and western Europe, is taking over operational leadership of the Irish claims function. RSA acted very expeditiously when this issue came to notice.

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