Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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77. To ask the Minister for Finance when he first became aware of the sale of Siteserv; the actions he took as a consequence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17150/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Board of IBRC met and approved the sale of Siteserv on 15 March 2012. On 16 March 2012, given that Siteserv was a member of the Enterprise Securities Market, it was announced to the Stock Exchange of the proposed disposal of the Siteserv business to Millington. As per the RNS on the Irish Stock Exchange, completion of the sale was subject to and conditional upon a number of conditions including receipt of approval of the transaction from the Irish Competition Authority. After this announcement to the stock exchange there would have been media attention around the transaction.

I have been informed that my officials were not made aware of the details of the transaction during their monthly meetings with IBRC management in advance of the decision of the Board to approve the sale. The Department did not receive board packs or minutes of the IBRC board meetings prior to the introduction of the revised relationship framework that came into operation on the 29th of March 2012.

Under the relationship framework that was in place prior to the 29th of March 2012, the board of IBRC were not required to consult with the Minister for Finance on transactions such as the sale of Siteserv and they did not do so.

Following the introduction of the new relationship framework, the board of IBRC commenced forwarding board packs and minutes of board meetings. I wish to note that the April 2012 Board pack contained the minutes of the Board meetings held on 20 March 2012, 21 March 2012, 28 March 2012 and 13 April 2012; however there was no minutes included in the April Board pack of the Board meeting of 15 March 2012, which we subsequently learned approved the sale of Siteserv.

Following a thorough search of emails and documents held by the Department of Finance and discussions with the Department officials involved, I am informed that the first record relating to the sale of Siteserv is dated 23 March 2012 and was an email from a member of the public relating to media reports around the sale of Siteserv.

The first Parliamentary Question was answered on the sale of Siteserv on 3 April 2012 with a further PQ on the matter answered on 18 April 2012. It is important to note that my Department conducted a review of the transaction in June 2012 so any concerns around the transaction were not known by either me or my officials when answering PQs prior to June 2012.

There were no further PQs answered in relation to Siteserv in 2012.

There were no PQs answered on Siteserv in 2013.

There were 2 PQ's answered on Siteserv in 2014.

The first PQ which was answered on Siteserv in 2014 was on 21 October 2014 with a further PQ answered on 16 December 2014 which stated that "The sale process involved two stages and IBRC was briefed after each stage. The Board of Siteserv, as advised by KPMG Corporate Finance and Davy Corporate Finance, recommended the successful bid as representing the best return for IBRC. I am advised that the Board of the bank at that time were satisfied that this was the case".

On 4 March 2015 I next answered a PQ in relation to the relationship framework that was in place when the sale of Siteserv took place. On 26 March 2015, I next answered 3 PQs on Siteserv in which I detailed meetings which were held between my Department and IBRC in relation to Siteserv and also around the steps that were taken when reports of certain details around the transaction came to the attention of my Department.

A further 21 PQs have been answered by me since the 1 April 2015 up to 29 April 2015 on Siteserv and details relating to the transaction.

Returning to the period when the deal was first brought to the my attention and that of my officials.

As my officials became aware of reports of certain aspects of the Siteserv transaction in April and May 2012, they inquired about the transaction with IBRC management as part of their regular engagement. Following initial discussions, they agreed with IBRC's Chairman and CEO (on 31 May 2012) that the Department  would review the available information on the transaction involving Siteserv in greater detail to better understand the decisions taken and the impact these decisions had on the process and the final recovery for the bank.

This review by Department of Finance officials took place on 11 June 2012. Through this review, Department of Finance officials became concerned with certain aspects of the transaction and details of the concerns which were set out in the memos and briefing notes that have been released under recent Freedom of Information requests and which are available on the Department of Finance website.

Following this review, on the 25 July 2012, I met with IBRC's Chairman and CEO to discuss, among other things, the concerns regarding this transaction which were raised following Department engagement with IBRC management.

At this meeting, the Chairman provided me with strong assurances that the transaction, including those aspects of the transaction with which there were concerns, had been thoroughly assessed by the IBRC Board and that the Board of IBRC were satisfied that the transaction was managed in the best manner possible to achieve the best result for the State.

It should be noted that the IBRC Board had a fiduciary responsibility to the bank's stakeholders and so, in light of this legal responsibility, the Chairman and the Board would have considered and provided such assurances following serious and careful consideration. I accepted these assurances from the Chairman of IBRC.

However, as is also evidenced in the information released under Freedom of Information, engagement continued between Department of Finance officials and senior management of IBRC to improve upon the working relationship with IBRC and to help protect against such concerns arising in the future, including the implementation of the revised relationship framework and the secondment of a senior Department of Finance official to IBRC as a senior executive to facilitate IBRC's ongoing deleveraging.

The senior official remained seconded to IBRC unitl the liquidation of the bank in February 2013.