Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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27. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 80 of 26 March 2015, in relation to his Department's inquiries into the sale of Siteserv by Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, the reason he stated this matter was further discussed at a meeting between the former Secretary General of the Department of Finance and the then chief executive officer of the corporation took place in August 2012, when the chief executive officer in question has stated in the public domain that the matter was not discussed at that meeting (details supplied); if he disputes the account provided by the former chief executive officer; if not, if it was his intention to mislead Dáil Éireann in this matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17564/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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A record of the briefing note ahead of the former Secretary General of the Department of Finance meeting with the then CEO of IBRC in August 2012 shows that Siteserv was one of a number of topics which was contained in the briefing note.

A further record of an email which outlines outputs from this meeting also exists. The main output relating to this issue was the agreement to the secondment of a senior Department of Finance official to IBRC. (These records have been released under FOI and are available on the Department of Finance website at .)

This led to a senior Department of Finance official being announced as the Bank's new Head of Market Solutions on secondment from the Department of Finance, commencing the role on 2 October 2012. Given the banking experience of this person it was decided that he would be seconded to IBRC to explore opportunities for deleveraging with a view to maximising the recovery for the taxpayer. This had the additional benefit of providing greater oversight while supporting the management team.

The responsibilities of the person referred to in the question included:

- Membership of the Bank's Group Executive Committee (GEXCO);

- Membership of the Transaction Review Committee;

- Contribute to the strategic leadership of the Bank;

- Analyse existing investments within the portfolio, critically assess business plans, operations, management, processes, risks, and opportunities;

- Structure/restructure loans/investments from an optimal financial perspective, negotiate the structure and preferred terms;

- Identifying and developing deal opportunities with external investors and financiers that meet the various strategic and financial objectives of the Bank in wind down;

- Build and maintain dialogue with potential investors and counterparties to establish market opportunities and viable transaction options that assist the Bank meeting its wind down objectives;

- Engagement will be across private equity funds, credit opportunity funds, real estate funds and sovereign wealth funds as well as banks and other providers of credit in the European markets;

- Work with asset recovery teams;

- Appoint brokers/advisors in accordance with the Bank's procurement and compliance policy;

- Team management, and;

- Lead the execution of transactions and engage with counter parties while involving internal group functional groups as well as external service providers.

As the Deputy is aware, the former Secretary General of the Department of Finance who attended this meeting no longer works for the Department of Finance.  However, given the facts outlined above, it should be very clear to the Deputy that it was not, nor never would be, my intention to mislead Dáil Éireann.