Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This report was of the Houses, rather than of the Government, so the House should be in control of how it is debated rather than the Government deciding what the time is for a debate. We need to find a method that allows the Houses to set aside time to have this debate and then we might have a real debate. I would love to be able to hear a lot more of my colleagues' analysis of what went on within the report because that is vitally important.

We have been waiting a long time for this report, seven years in fact, and the fact that it has taken this long calls into question whether the manner in which public inquiries are undertaken in this country is adequate. It seems to me, based on this, that they are not adequately long but at the same time this is an important report and it is important that what went on is summed up here. It is my understanding that, due to the long duration of this investigation and the accumulation of large costs to the State, there are now talks of closing down the commission. I note that the Taoiseach said earlier that he will wait for the tribunal to comment on that before he makes his decision and of course he will wash his hands of it and say it is not his decision but the decision of the tribunal that we should go away from this. Once again the political system walks away from this scot-free and has no involvement.

There is no doubt that urgent reform is needed and I would hope that if there was a question of closing down the commission then a vote on that motion would be brought to the Dáil to consider because surely that is something this House should decide on and we could discuss why it needs to happen. Although it took far too long to come to a conclusion, the findings in this report are absolutely in the public interest. The report details a catalogue of issues which showed the sale process was undermined from the very beginning. It explicitly states that the Siteserv transaction was so "tainted by impropriety and wrongdoing" that the "transaction was not commercially sound". Chapter 15 of the report details bonuses that cost Siteserv more than €800,000, which was more than the amount of Siteserv’s corporate finance advisers’ fees combined. It goes on to state that, "In the context of Siteserv, these were bonus payments on a lavish scale and entirely unacceptable for a company that was costing the taxpayer almost €118 million in loan write-offs and losses." I understand that the Taoiseach has said the cost of the Siteserv inquiry "could exceed €30 million" and I agree this is an indication of a broken system. However, we are talking about the sale of a company that has cost the taxpayer more than €118 million, in a time of real hardship in this country, when people were struggling to stay afloat, facing constant cuts and being hit with tax after tax, while Siteserv was lining its pockets with extravagant bonuses and charging ordinary people for it. It is an absolute disgrace.

There is no doubt this investigation was absolutely necessary and I would like to assure the Government that I have not forgotten that we were initially told by the then Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, that an inquiry into the transaction was not necessary. It took three years of opposition pushback before an inquiry was sought and I would like to take this opportunity to commend Deputy Catherine Murphy on her pursuit of this. I have no doubt this inquiry would not have happened if it were not for her endless work.

There are many areas of concern in the report, including the fact that Denis O’Brien was offered exclusivity on the deal; the fact that a finance official leaked confidential Siteserv sale details that would ultimately alert Denis O’Brien to the sale; the fact that IBRC wrote off €119 million of the €150 million that Siteserv owed; the fact that IBRC lost out on between €700,000 and €2.1 million by not investigating shareholder payments; and the fact that the Commission found that no tax was paid by individuals on the capital gains on the sale of the 500 shares in Siteserv for €2.3 million. Denis O'Brien was innocent in all of this and knew nothing of it, yet he gave more than 15% of the new company to individuals because he knew nothing about it. That stretches anybody's belief that this report finds everything that should be found and that was certain to be found.

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