Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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281. To ask the Minister for Finance the steps that were put in place to ensure that no inside information or conflict of interest existed in the recent sale of buy-to-let mortgages to a company (detail supplied) in view of the fact that the company had previously been employed on a pro bono basis to advise a bank (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27781/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Finance appointed Goldman Sachs International in December 2015 to provide financial advice to the Department on the capital restructuring of AIB and in respect of the State's investments in AIB. As is customary in these type of engagements, the Goldman Sachs team advising the department was subject to strict confidentiality agreements which preclude them from sharing any information obtained in the course of their work for the Department with any third parties, including any other arm or function of Goldman Sachs.

Separately, Goldman Sachs was appointed by the Department of Finance in March 2017 as a Joint Bookrunner on the selling syndicate for an IPO of AIB.

In the case of AIB, any appointment of advisory firms or decisions on whom to sell assets to, are matters for the board and management of the bank itself.