Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if he will explain the role of the public interest directors in the AIB and in other financial institutions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43169/12]

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if the public interest directors in the banks provide him with regular reports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43170/12]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide a list of all public interest directors that he appointed to bank boards; the role of these public interest directors; the number of times they report to him; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43204/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 167, 168 and 172 together.

As the Deputy will be aware this Government has not appointed any public interest directors to the boards of the Covered Banks since taking office. The dates that the existing public interest directors were appointed are shown in the table below.

The legal position is that any director appointed to the board of the covered institutions whether under the Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Scheme 2008 or otherwise is subject to the requirements of company law in relation to the discharge of their responsibilities as a company director. As such, the director is legally bound to act in what he or she believes are the interests of the separate legal entity that is the institution itself. These are the directors so called fiduciary responsibilities. To address the scope for actual and perceived conflicts between the fiduciary duties of the directors of financial institutions under company law and the wider public interest in circumstances where those institutions have received huge financial support from the State, legal clarity, not just to the role of the public interest director but to that of the entire boards of those institutions, was provided under Section 48 of the Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Act 2010. It provides that the overriding duty of directors of the covered institutions relates to the public interest as set out in the Act.

Accordingly, public interest directors do not have a formal reporting relationship to the Minister or to the Department of Finance. As Minister for Finance, I am strongly committed to ensuring that the boards of the covered institutions act at all times in a manner fully consistent with key public interest objectives for the banking sector.

The following table sets out the current public interest directors at each of the covered banks.

Dr Michael Somers is a Government Nominee (not a Public Interest Director) appointed to the AIB board on 14 January 2010 under the terms of NPRFC’s investment of €3.5bn in AIB of May 2009.