Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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206. To ask the Minister for Finance his views regarding the recent reports regarding missing files at his Department relating to decisions taken prior to the bank guarantee; the steps being taken to locate these files; if he is considering measures to ensure there is no repeat occurrence of this practice in his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4055/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I assume the Deputy is referring to the two missing letters which were part of an FOI request to this Department.  Both letters post date the bank guarantee.

My Department answered a freedom of information request received from a Deputy in December 2013 in which the Deputy sought a review of a decision in respect of an FOI received in 2009 which covered all correspondence between Minister Brian Lenihan and Chairpersons/Chief Executive Officers in those banks under the Government Guarantee Scheme for the period 1 August 2008 to 11 March 2009 as per FOI 066/2009 with a renewed assessment of whether each record could be released under FOI rules.

The Department answered the request on 5 December, 2013. In its response, the Department indicated that it could not consider whether to redact or release two of the documents as it could not locate the original copies of the documents. It did however provide the redacted copies of the correspondence along with an extract from one of the letters from the Ministerial representation system. 

I understand that the documents in question relate to correspondence between third parties with the Minister for Finance copied into the correspondence and are not directly related to the guarantee.

My Department is continuing its efforts to locate the original documents received in the department, and is also investigating whether copies are available from the original correspondents.