Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important for me to set out the role of a committee of inspection in an ordinary liquidation and the legislative and factual context of the special liquidation of IBRC. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Act of 2013 specifically disapplied a number of provisions in the Companies Act 1963 insofar as they applied to the liquidation of IBRC, including those relating to committees of inspection. In the liquidation of IBRC, the Act conferred supervision of the liquidation to the Minister for Finance and provided the Minister with special powers in overseeing the liquidation of IBRC. In an ordinary liquidation, a committee of inspection grants the creditors of the company oversight of the liquidation as well as a say in the decisions of a liquidator regarding the liquidation. Under the Companies Act, there is no role for non-creditors of a company to participate in a committee of inspection. In the case of IBRC, at the point of liquidation the make-up of a committee of inspection would likely have included representatives of the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, and other unsecured creditors of the bank, potentially including employees and subordinated bondholders. It is important to note that the special liquidators have recently announced that all outstanding subordinated unsecured creditor claims and unsecured creditor interest claims will be paid in full. As such, the expectation is that the only remaining creditor in the liquidation of IBRC will be the State, as the sole shareholder of the entity. Furthermore, the option remains open to any creditor of IBRC to apply to the High Court to determine any question arising in the winding up of IBRC, including the manner in which liquidations have occurred. I have been advised that no such determinations have been made.

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