Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It would not have been necessary to establish a commission of investigation if the Taoiseach or the Minister for Finance had properly answered questions in the Dáil. The taxpayer may also have been saved hundreds of millions of euro, money which would have been better spent on health services, tackling poverty or building schools. Since 2012, Teachta Pearse Doherty and I, as well as other Sinn Féin Deputies and Opposition Members, have tabled a range of parliamentary questions about IBRC. The responses from the Minister for Finance were deliberately vague and obstructive. They were opaque.

Some of my questions related to IBRC’s hiring of Blackstone, an American vulture capital group. At the time, Blackstone was also seeking to buy IBRC’s loan book. This meant that IBRC was paying Blackstone for advice on the sale of assets whose buyer might be Blackstone itself. Any citizen could see the clear conflict of interest at the heart of this arrangement. Questions, which we asked incessantly, about fees paid to advisers were not answered.

The impression given at the time by the Minister's responses was that he had no difficulty with any of this. At the time of my questions, the Department of Finance was in weekly contact with IBRC. The Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance met the head of Blackstone, Stephen Schwarzman, and his associate, Gerry Murphy, in November 2011. During this period, Michael Geoghegan, the Government-appointed chair of NAMA's advisory group, sought to appoint Gerry Murphy from Blackstone to the board. Had this happened it would have resulted in someone from Blackstone giving advice to NAMA on the sales of assets whose buyer might have been Blackstone itself. The conflicts of interest are startling, but there is nothing from the Government. It is a case of "move on, nothing to see".

The appointment of Mr. Murphy appears only to have been abandoned after Sinn Féin parliamentary questions drew attention to the matter. What the Minister, Deputy Noonan, failed to answer in 2012 was when he or the Department became aware that IBRC intended to commission Blackstone as an adviser on its loan sales. Will he tell us now? I doubt it. Were concerns raised by the Minister at any time about the very obvious conflicts of interest in Blackstone taking on an advisory role with IBRC when it was also bidding for IBRC loans? Did the Taoiseach or the Minister for Finance on the back of questions from Sinn Féin in 2012 investigate matters in IBRC? Does this explain the subsequent appointment of Mr. Neil Ryan from the Department of Finance to IBRC? Why did Neil Ryan leave IBRC and what was the nature of his departure?

There is no need to wait for the conclusions of the commission of investigation to get these answers. The Minister could speak up at any point during this debate or in his concluding remarks, and this is what he should do. As I have just said, if the Minister, Deputy Noonan, or the Taoiseach, had answered questions in the proper way in recent months, or since 2012, there would be no need for the commission. While the Taoiseach and the Minister plead ignorance now, they had the power to do something about it at the time. They were being asked to do so by Sinn Féin but they did nothing. They fobbed us off. What is clear is that the Government used the parliamentary process to obstruct, obscure and divert rather than explain, inform or account for its actions. The Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Noonan, failed to hold IBRC to account and sought to prevent the Dáil from holding the Government to account. This behaviour has exposed once again the shallowness of Fine Gael's high-flown rhetoric in 2011 about a democratic revolution and a new era of openness, transparency and accountability. Like the Irish Water fiasco, Fine Gael and the Labour Party treated the Dáil with complete contempt.

Disturbing information has emerged, not least as a result of the work of Teachta Catherine Murphy, whose commendable efforts let us all know that Denis O'Brien's company was not the highest bidder for Siteserv. It has also emerged that the Minister for Finance was briefed by Department of Finance officials about their concerns about this deal and other transactions involving IBRC. For example, €64 million was written off for Blue Ocean Associates before it was purchased by a consortium, also involving Denis O'Brien. I cannot make any real comment on this, but it was reported at the weekend that the total write-downs granted to big business by IBRC amount to more than €1 billion. When the Government was asked repeatedly to establish a commission of investigation it chose instead to appoint the special liquidators who had helped to close down IBRC. They were appointed to review all transactions of IBRC over €10 million. The liquidators are from KPMG auditors, the very people who oversaw the sale of Siteserv. If ever there was an insider review process, this is it.

The fundamental issues which gave rise to this extraordinary series of events have not been resolved and the commission of investigation the Minister is establishing is only part of the answer. The statement today by the Minister for Finance to correct the Dáil record totally contradicts earlier statements made by him. While I accept the Minister made the statements in good faith, I am sure he agrees it will do little to allay public concerns about the political oversight of IBRC, but the political oversight of IBRC is not even included in the terms of reference. Think of the tens of thousands of families struggling or unable to pay mortgages or who live under the threat of eviction, those small businesses which cannot get credit from banks and the elderly ladies, some of whom are over 100 years old, who end up on trolleys. Think of what this says to them about the Government's priorities, and there is ample evidence of its deferential treatment of the banks and the wealthy elites. It is an example of the toxic relationship that has long existed between big business and political parties such as Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

In a letter I wrote last week to the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance on behalf of Sinn Féin, I made a number of recommendations aimed at broadening the proposed terms of reference for a commission of investigation into IBRC transactions. Later, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald will outline in detail Sinn Féin's position on these revised terms of reference. I do not believe they deal comprehensively with all of the issues the commission of investigation needs to examine.

It is also important to state that concerns about IBRC are not confined to the bank. Similar concerns surround the operation of the National Asset Management Agency. NAMA has also been handing billions of euros in debt arising from the economic crash, mainly from the collapse of the construction industry. NAMA has been ordered to wind up faster than its 2020 remit demands. Sinn Féin is concerned this may result in a failure to get good value for the taxpayer and that NAMA is undertaking a fire sale of assets to meet an arbitrary deadline. The distinct impression that citizens are left with after weeks of exposure to the IBRC scandal is that a culture of secrecy exists at the heart of the Government. There is not even inclusion of an investigation into claims of alleged verbal agreements as part of some of the transactions undertaken by IBRC.

We had the spectacle of the Minister for Finance, and the Taoiseach again this morning, claiming that after three years of parliamentary questions he has adequately answered each one. This is an insult to the Teachtaí Dála here and, more importantly, to those citizens who have sent us here. The blatant and persistent withholding of information from the Dáil and citizens by senior members of the Government underlines the lack of genuine democracy here. This is the same political culture of cronyism and graft which the Government promised to do away with. This remains a Government of golden circles and insiders. I note the effort by Fianna Fáil to reinvent itself as the guardian of the Oireachtas and the right to Dáil privilege, unless of course it involves Teachta Mary Lou McDonald. It is show business and business as usual, but no amount of spin and bluster can disguise the toxic nature of the political culture that permeates the way the Governments here do their business, particularly concerning transactions entered into by IBRC.

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