Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Question 33: To ask the Minister for Finance, in respect of ongoing industrial disputes at the Educational Building Society, when the placing agreement will be furnished to the union, UNITE. [5515/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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On the basis that the Placing Agreement entered into on 23 December 2010, the Placing Agreement entered into on 1 July 2011 and the Minister's Letter entered into on 25 July 2011 are private contractual documents entered into between, amongst others, the Minister for Finance and Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. ("AIB"), it would not be appropriate for such documents to be made publicly available. On 13 December 2010, AIB publicly announced that an instruction had been received from the Minister that the provision of further State funding to AIB would be conditional on the non-payment of any bonuses awarded, no matter when they may have been earned, since AIB would not be in a position to pay such bonuses in the absence of State support. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of AIB, EBS is subject to the same instruction. This instruction has been communicated to the legal advisers to UNITE the Union.

The private contractual documents referred to above do not contain any material information relating to the non-payment of bonuses in addition to that which is already in the public domain.

The Deputy will be aware that the industrial relations dispute is now before the Labour Relations Commission who are presently endeavouring to find an acceptable solution to all parties. Accordingly, it would not be advisable to comment further at this stage.