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

The position is that we anticipated a year or so ago that we would have a need for advice and three panels were put together of possible advisers with different areas of expertise. The panel from which we were getting advice to restructure AIB had 11 advisory groups on it, including Goldman Sachs. All 11 tendered and there was an objective selection process. Goldman Sachs was marginally first on the aggregate score. I had no involvement in this whatsoever. I was simply told the result of the competition and I agreed to the proposal that Goldman Sachs, because it had come out of the competition, should be the winner. Five of the 11 groups that tendered offered to do the work for nothing. It is common practice seemingly, especially in the city of London, that finance houses such as Goldman Sachs feel their reputation will be enhanced for other work if they act as advisers to sovereign governments for key pieces of work. An IPO to sell even 25% of AIB would be one of the biggest ever on the London stock market and obviously great attention would be paid to who are the advisers.

There is no commitment at the point of sale that Goldman Sachs will get additional work. There will be a separate tendering process for the advisers that are required. Goldman Sachs is retained to advise on the restructuring of the bank and when that work is finished, any new work will have to be re-tendered.

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