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

This is about the future of three Irish companies, namely, AIB, Fexco and Goodbody. This is a transaction that is good for a large employer and financial service provider in our country. For Fexco, the original owners of Goodbody, this is a transaction that is important and beneficial for its future. The future of Irish companies matters to me.

The Deputy referred to the fact that we still need to regain the money put into AIB at the time of the last crisis which our country had to endure. Parts of how that bank has the opportunity to become more valuable in the future is through the provision of the kind of services that Goodbody will be able to deliver when owned by the AIB Group. Of course I got the advice of the Attorney General on the legality of what I was doing. That advice indicated to me that what I was doing was of course legal. I made this decision because it is good for three Irish companies and for those who work for them.

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