Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 48: To ask the Minister for Finance his views that FTI Consulting can truly be considered an independent adviser when, in the aftermath of the acquisition of its US advisory role for the bank, it subsequently hired a person (details supplied), a former vice president within Anglo Irish Bank; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that one of the senior management partners at FTI Consulting formerly worked for Blackstone; if his further attention has been drawn to the fact that a senior managing director at FTI Consulting works as an adviser to the chief executive of Blackstone; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11750/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As indicated previously to the Deputy the Board of the bank is responsible for the day to day operation of the bank The matters referred to by the Deputy were not brought to my attention as these matters would, in normal course, be a matter for the Board to ensure that proper procedures are followed. However, I require the highest standards from financial institutions operating in the State particularly so from the covered institutions. I have, in the circumstances, asked IBRC to look at the matters raised in your question and to provide a comprehensive response.

The following response is based on information provided to IBRC by FTI Consulting: "The individual, referred to in the Question, is a Director in the FTI Corporate Finance Restructuring Practice and was hired by FTI on December 19, 2011. His hiring occurred after FTI's work on the IBRC US portfolio was complete and without any knowledge on the part of IBRC. He is not connected in any way to the FTI Real Estate Solutions Practice that worked on the Bank's US Loan Portfolio nor the group working on the 'Segregation Conditions' engagement between Blackstone's advisory business and its real estate investment business. He has no access to the practice's network where engagement data is stored (the network for the Real Estate Solutions Practice and the Corporate Finance Restructuring Practice are completely separate). Furthermore, he is based in the FTI Boston office and is physically separated from our New York (750 3rd Avenue office) and New Jersey offices where the Real Estate Solutions Practice is located.

FTI has also confirmed to IBRC that Sanjeev Khemlani, a Senior Managing Director in FTI's Corporate Restructuring Practice out of FTI's NY - 3 Times square was a senior person in Blackstone's GSO Capital Partners group in Hong Kong in 2009. Mr. Khemlani left Blackstone in 2009 and we understand has been employed by FTI since then. The segment leader of the Corporate Finance Practice has assured FTI Consulting that Blackstone is not Mr. Khlemani's client and that he is not an advisor to Blackstone's CEO. Nevertheless, the same issues as mentioned above apply to Mr. Khemlani with respect to separation of network access that precludes Mr. Khemlani having any access to the IBRC files as well as physical separation of offices. Furthermore, none of the people who work on the IBRC account from the Real Estate Practice were aware of Mr. Khemlani until this issue was raised and have never met him or discussed any matter with him.

Please note that FTI employs over 2,600 professionals (over 3,600 employees) worldwide. As such, it is always possible to employ an individual who had some employment history with financial institutions and large advisory or investment firms. However all employees enter into confidentiality agreements and receive annual training on ethics and ethical behaviour to ensure the confidentiality of our client matters." I believe this reply is comprehensive and addresses the concerns raised by you in relation to independence of FTI's involvement in the process to appoint advisors at IBRC.