John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

In light of the ongoing revelations in the media about Anglo Irish Bank I call on the Leader to contact the Minister for Finance with a view to setting up an inquiry into one particular element of the story which is in danger of being overlooked. We know that the revelations are the most blatant and obvious demonstration of the arrogance, hubris and, I contest, criminality that took place in Anglo Irish Bank. However, there is a particular case relating to an Anglo Irish Bank subsidiary in Austria, which, bizarrely and strangely, was sold by Anglo Irish Bank with a loan provided by that same bank to the buyer, Valartis, a Swiss brokerage. The bizarre and strange thing about the sale of this Anglo Irish Bank subsidiary in Austria is that at the time of the sale it had deposits of between €600 million and €1 billion on its books. This was after 6 September 2008, the very time to which these tapes relate and the very time that Anglo Irish Bank was contesting that its problem was a liquidity problem. Yet between €600 million and €1 billion worth of liquidity was available on its books, albeit in an Austrian account. Despite this, the bank saw fit, strangely, to sell the entire subsidiary to a shady Swiss brokerage. I wish to establish the beneficial owners of the deposits in that bank to determine whether there is an Irish connection to the beneficial ownership of the deposits.