Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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3. To ask the Minister for Finance if he is satisfied that the inquiry into the sale of Siteserv and other companies at the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation contains sufficient safeguards to prevent any conflicts of interest; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17762/15]

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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My question is also on conflicts of interest relating to Siteserv. The Minister said that any potential public concerns about conflicts of interest will be addressed by a High Court judge and that every fact has been put on the table. Some 19 questions were asked of the Minister before this blew up and the information has been pulled and dragged from him, rather than put on the table. Can he not see how one company investigating itself is not an independent inquiry?

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for her question. In light of the recent concerns raised in the Houses of the Oireachtas and elsewhere regarding the Siteserv transaction and the public discourse this has caused surrounding the handling of other transactions undertaken by IBRC, I have directed the special liquidators of IBRC to review certain transactions which occurred between 21 January 2009, the date of the nationalisation of IBRC, and 7 February 2013, the date of the appointment of the special liquidators to IBRC. The review will cover transactions that resulted in a capital loss to IBRC of at least €10 million during that period, or that are specifically identified by the special liquidator as likely to give rise to potential public concern, in respect of the ultimate returns to the taxpayer. The retired High Court judge Mr. Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill will monitor any actual or perceived conflict of interest with the review. I am informed that the review will cover over 30 transactions.

The review and report will evaluate whether there is any evidence of material deficiencies in the performance of their functions by those acting on behalf of IBRC, including the board, directors, management, employees and agents of IBRC and whether it can be concluded that any of the transactions were not commercially sound. I have asked that the special liquidators carry out this review and provide a report of their findings before 31 August 2015. Following this, I will make this report available to relevant committees of the Oireachtas. The Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform has requested a copy of the review upon completion. The review will be made available to the committee in line with the request.

I want to stress that the commission of this review and report is to serve the public interest in light of recent speculation and is not being undertaken as the result of any evidence that such deficiencies existed or that transactions were not commercially sound.

The special liquidators are best placed to undertake such a review thoroughly and expeditiously given their access to all books and records of IBRC, the resources at their disposal to conduct such a review and the power set out under the IBRC Act which allows me to make this direction in the public interest. As I have said, in order to manage or mitigate against any actual or perceived conflicts of interest, I have directed, with the agreement of the special liquidators, that retired High Court judge Mr. Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill monitor any actual or perceived conflict of interest with the review. I am confident that this will ensure that the review process is robust.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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The Minister has appointed KPMG to investigate a sale in which it was involved. Many of its directors also had links with Siteserv. This is an old boys network that is in place. Two weeks ago, the Tánaiste told myself and other Deputies that there would be an independent inquiry into this by a competent authority and now we have KPMG investigating itself. Can the Minister say why Walter Hobbs, who was the overseer of the sale, is also a director of KPMG? Mr. Hobbs defended the sale on a "Prime Time" programme and he also has shares in three companies.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy cannot make allegations in the Chamber. This is Question Time.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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How can this be an independent inquiry? In regard to the Minister's role, in any other state, even under capitalist democracy, he would be gone because he has told two different stories.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Will the Deputy ask a question, please? It is Question Time.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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The Minister has misled the Dáil. He told-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy cannot make statements like that.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Obviously, the Minister was very concerned about this sale but-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Will the Deputy resume her seat? The time is up. Thank you, Deputy. Will the Minister please respond?

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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-----in response to 19 questions from several Deputies he said that there was nothing to see and we should move along. He has embarked on a path-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy, will you please resume your seat?

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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I am just finishing now.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The time is up. It has expired. The Deputy had a minute to put her question, not to make statements or allegations.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Can the Minister say why he has told two different stories?

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I ask that the microphone not be switched on when the Deputy is out of order.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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What allegations, a Cheann Comhairle?

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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You were making allegations of all sorts of corruption and everything else. The Minister to reply.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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It is obvious the Minister misled the Dáil in his response to questions.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy cannot make a statement that the Minister misled the Dáil like that. She cannot throw out those allegations in a democratic assembly.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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We are finding that out through freedom of information requests now. We can say it.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy is not going to get away with constant allegations in this Chamber as long as I am in the Chair.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Obviously, we are not going to get to the truth as long as you are in the Chair.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy should withdraw that comment.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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There is a thing called democracy where people are entitled to their good name.

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I have set out the position in reply to other Deputies and also in a lengthy debate last night on a motion put down by the Fianna Fáil party, and we set it out in full. I have issued a legal instruction to the special liquidators to carry out a review. I have dealt with the concern about conflicts of interest by appointing a retired High Court judge to monitor and advise on any perceived or actual conflicts of interest. That process has now commenced. I am certainly not getting into a position of carrying out a parallel inquiry here in the Dáil in reply to allegations, but I will put this to the House. There is not a single allegation being made that is not based on information that I put before the Dáil. We have given full information both in reply to parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests. The information given by the Department of Finance and by me is the basis of everything that has been said, so to accuse me of not giving full information is a pretty ridiculous charge in that context.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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The point is that we are meant to believe there are Chinese walls between people who are investigating, KPMG. It is just ludicrous. Nobody outside this Chamber-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Will the Deputy put a question? This is Question Time.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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-----believes that. How does the Minister expect people to believe in this when somebody who had a beneficial interest in this sale is now investigating it and that a judge will step in on occasion? That is not an independent inquiry. I know the Minister was concerned because he had a number of meetings about this whole issue and his officials were clearly concerned, but it seems that he can tell the Dáil another story. He should have come out at that stage when he was asked questions-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy cannot make allegations of that sort in this Chamber. The Minister has stated his case and the Deputy cannot make allegations that are false. Thank you.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Did the Minister not attend a number of meetings about this in which he expressed his concern? He said that his patience was wearing thin in relation to all of the players involved-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Thank you, Deputy.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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-----but yet he came into the Dáil on a number of occasions and he did not give that information.

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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First of all, there was no difference of opinion between the Department of Finance and myself. My role and that of the Department of Finance was to hold IBRC accountable. It was difficult to do so because of the arrangements made by the previous Government in the legislation that nationalised IBRC, the former Anglo Irish Bank, and also because of relationship framework that was put in place. I understand why those arrangements were made because I remember the debate at the time and there were all sorts of allegations that there would be political interference. The attempt to protect against political interference went so far that it put me and my Department in a difficult position to exercise accountability. There were a lot of issues that concerned me but I was not asked about them in the questions. Any fair examination of the parliamentary replies will find that they were properly answered. The Deputy put down the first question and her leader put down the second question. At that stage, it was before I became aware of the Siteserv situation, so the Deputy got less than full information and so did Deputy Gerry Adams, but that was because I gave the Deputy the information that I had. After that, everything was answered in a lengthy fashion. Everybody knows that what one looks under freedom of information is not what one looks for in a parliamentary question.