Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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63. To ask the Minister for Finance if he regrets continuing to employ persons (details supplied) in a State owned bank; the actions he took to ensure they were fit to hold these positions that were recently published in the media. [32191/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Like every citizen in this country who is working hard to restore the economy, I am deeply disturbed by the taped conversations from 2008 involving these executives of the former Anglo Irish Bank and dismayed to hear senior banking executives refer to the banking crisis with such arrogance. Irish taxpayers have grimly endured the austere cost of the bank recapitalisation and the bank guarantee and are, understandably, outraged by these revelations. Irish citizens have suffered greatly as a direct result of the banking crisis and the events which led to the bank guarantee. The recent revelations will only serve to reinforce the Government's resolve to move this country back in the right direction by tightening up regulation and enforcing it.

It would not be appropriate for me to discuss the employment of specific individuals in the bank. Ultimately, the board and management of Anglo Irish Bank-IBRC had responsibility for the ongoing staffing of the bank. As the Deputy will be aware, there was an extensive restructuring of the governance and management of Anglo Irish Bank immediately following the nationalisation of the bank in January 2009. As part of that restructuring, all non-executive directors in the bank, other than the Chairman and those appointed under the guarantee scheme, resigned and were replaced with a new board. None of the new executive or non-executive directors was involved with the bank prior to nationalisation.

In addition, there was an extensive reorganisation of the senior management team, commencing with the appointment of the former CEO of IBRC, Mike Aynsley, in September 2009. Following that appointment, the entire executive of the bank was replaced with an appropriately skilled senior management team to lead the newly formed IBRC, namely, the combined former Anglo Irish Bank and former Irish Nationwide Building Society, through the process of wind-down. Under the relationship framework the board and senior management of the bank were responsible for all staff employment matters at the bank. I had no role in this matter. None the less, the tapes raise serious issues and the Government is committed to ensuring the public is fully informed about what happened in Irish banks in the lead-up to and during the financial crisis.

The Government has published the Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013 which, if enacted, will provide the legal framework for a banking inquiry to be held within current constitutional parameters. I expect that once that legislation is on the Statute Book, the Houses of the Oireachtas will move quickly to progress that inquiry. It is important that all relevant parties participate fully with any resulting inquiry.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

There are ongoing investigations by the Gardaí that must be let run their course. The Central Bank is carefully studying the various transcripts emerging and will be liaising with the Garda in this regard. The Central Bank is also examining whether any breaches of regulatory requirements may have occurred arising from the information contained in the transcripts.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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The question was whether the Minister regrets continuing to employ Mr. John Bowe and Mr. Peter Fitzgerald, the latter until February of this year, in respect of which the Minister has passed the buck to the board of the bank. In October 2011, I asked the Minister how many of the top 50 senior executives employed in Anglo Irish Bank prior to the crash were still employed by the State. The Minister was forthright in his answer and said that 22 of the top 50 were still employed by the State, 19 of whom were earning in excess of €175,000.

Mr. John Bowe and Mr. Peter Fitzgerald, who are now household names as a result of the Anglo tapes, are two of the individuals who continued to be employed by the Minister for Finance on behalf of the State. Others, whom I have previously named in this House, were involved in reckless lending at that bank. One of these employees, heard on the Anglo tapes, left his position in February this year. This is at the same time as the public is experiencing huge austerity.

We were promised by Government that it would clear out the banks and burn the bondholders. That was the chant of the Government parties prior to the election. It is clear that this is not what has happened. Not only did the Government fail to burn the bondholders - one of the first things it did was pay the promissory note due on 31 March 2011 - but it also protected these individuals in the same way as it protected Mr. Richie Boucher, head of the retail division in Bank of Ireland in the run-up to the crash and now in charge at that bank, commanding a salary of €843,000 per annum.

I will put my question again to see if I can get an answer from the Minister. Does he regret continuing the employment of Mr. John Bowe and Mr. Peter Fitzgerald? The latter was one of the 22 senior executives in Anglo Irish Bank before the crash who, as the Minister stated in the House two years ago, was still in the employment of the State.

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The new management and staffing arrangements of IBRC-Anglo Irish Bank were in place long before I became Minister for Finance. I have no role in the day-to-day running of any of the banks and decisions about who does and does not work in a bank are a matter for the board and management of the bank in question.

The Deputy is moving on to very dangerous ground in naming individuals and assuming culpability. This is exactly what happened when the former Deputy, Ms Mary Harney, engaged in a rant against the former Taoiseach, the late Charles Haughey, and a court subsequently found she had prejudiced the case and charges could not proceed.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Notwithstanding the revelations on the Anglo tapes, I have made clear for a long time that those who were in senior positions in Anglo Irish Bank should not have been in the employ of the State. The individuals in question earned more than the Minister for Finance until February this year, despite having been involved in a bank that cost the State more than €30 billion. We see the pain this caused in every community in the State.

We have heard a great deal about fitness and probity. Why did the Minister for Finance not issue an instruction that senior executives in Anglo Irish Bank be subjected to a fitness and probity test to ensure they could continue, in senior positions, to restructure the bank? As a former leader of the Fine Gael Party, why did he not speak to another former leader of his party, Mr. Alan Dukes, who was appointed as public interest director in Anglo Irish Bank, to ascertain what Mr. Dukes knew about the reasons some of the 22 individuals in question continued to be in the employment of the State and were awarded salaries in excess of the salary earned by the Minister for Finance?

Has the Minister taken it upon himself to inquire as to whether any other types of tapes exist in Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks? Has he ensured that no one who was in a senior position in Anglo Irish Bank is working in any financial institution being bailed out by the State?

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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It is a matter for the directors, boards and management of banks to decide who does and does not work in a particular bank. I remind the Deputy - I am sure he will be disappointed to hear this - that I brought in a special liquidator and liquidated IBRC last February. We closed down the bank. The Deputy would love to be able to point across the Chamber and tell me the individuals in question are still working in the bank. I am sorry to disappoint him because we liquidated the bank and moved it on.