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Updated 11.10pm
CATHERINE MURPHY HAS called for an independent inquiry into a number of large transactions by IBRC (formerly Anglo Irish Bank) prior to it being wound up two years ago.
The independent TD received documents from the Department of Finance today in relation to freedom of information requests.
She said the highly-redacted files, which she distributed to the media today, contradict responses to parliamentary questions she received from Finance Minister Michael Noonan.
In the documents, senior officials at the department express reservations about a number of “poorly executed” large transactions made by IBRC (Irish Bank Resolution Corporation), including the sale of Siteserv to the Denis O’Brien-owned company Millington.
Former chairman of Anglo, Alan Dukes, has in a statement this evening rejected any suggestions of impropriety in the sale of Siteserv, Newstalk reports.
Murphy said the files highlight that there were “serious problems in the relationship that existed between the IBRC, formerly Anglo, and the Department of Finance”.
She claimed that this likely played a role in the winding down of IBRC in February 2013.
In one memo, a senior department official states that “events over the past few months have led me to question the effectiveness of the management team in IBRC … I am concerned that the reputation of the IBRC and by extension the State has been damaged as a result of these events.”
One document states:
Siteserv is the subject of a separate memo but to summarise we are concerned with the quality of some of the decisions taken in respect of this transaction. The sale decision has raised a number of areas where we believe that decisions taken by IBRC resulted in a less than optimum return for the bank. The transaction has also been the subject of a number of PQs and press queries which further questioned the commercial rationale for some elements of the sale including payments made to existing stakeholders. We are recommending that the Chairman is asked to commission a full independent review in relation to the Siteserv transaction.
Murphy questioned whether Noonan was being genuine when he “insisted he was satisfied that the Siteserv deal represented the best deal for the State”.
“The documents I receive today really make me question whether or not the Minister really believed that was the case,” she told reporters.
The State lost €105 million due to the transaction, in which Millington bought SiteServ for €45 million in 2012. A subsidiary of the company, GMC/Sierra, went on to be awarded a large water metering contract.
“I am calling for a full, independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding this deal, and other large deals, as it appears to me to go to the heart of the problems that led to the very rushed winding up of IBRC on the infamous ‘prom night’.The citizens, who every day feel the brunt of Anglo’s problems in their pocket, have a right to know why such deals would have been done and who was a party to those decisions,” Murphy said.
During Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil this afternoon, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin praised Murphy for “doggedly” pursuing this issue. The Sunday Times also reported on the topic over the weekend.
Martin noted that Siteserv shareholders received €5 million at the time of the sale.
He asked Enda Kenny if he would initiate “a proper inquiry” into the matter. The Taoiseach said he didn’t read the Sunday Times article, adding: “I don’t have the detail to reply in detail to you … I don’t want to say anything that I can’t stand over here.”
Kenny said it would be better for Noonan to reply to Martin directly.
Martin said he found it “very, very difficult to comprehend” that Kenny hadn’t seen the article
Did Minister Noonan ring you about it? Did anybody alert you?
He said that if Kenny was telling the truth he was “oblivious” to serious issues “going on under your nose”.
Kenny responded by saying he doesn’t “have the opportunity to read every newspaper article”, adding that officials in each department deal with Freedom of Information requests independently of his office.
The Taoiseach said that when IBRC approved the Siteserv deal in March 2012, it was not required to inform Noonan prior to the sale as the 2009 framework under which it was operating did not include any specific monetary thresholds.
However, a spokeswoman for Murphy was quick to point out that a new framework, under which IBRC would have had to discuss the issue with the finance minister, was “ready to go”.
Murphy said earlier:
There is such a web here. There is serious role for the media to play in untangling that web and making it accessible to the public. There’s a limit to what a slightly OCD independent member of the Oireachtas can do on this.
Department of Finance response
A spokesperson for the Department of Finance said Murphy’s claim that “all along the Minister [Noonan] has insisted he was satisfied that the Siteserv deal represented the best deal for the State….” is incorrect.
They said Noonan was “given assurances from the Chairman [former TD Alan Dukes] and CEO [Mike Aynsley] of IBRC at a meeting which he attended on 25 July 2012 that the transaction had been thoroughly assessed by the IBRC Board and that the Management and Board of IBRC were satisfied that the transaction was managed in the best manner possible to achieve the best result for the State”.
In a statement this evening, Alan Dukes categorically rejected suggestions of any impropriety in the March 2012 SiteServ sale by IBRC.
Newstalk reports that Dukes said the Department of Finance was kept informed, though later became concerned about the deal.
The spokesperson said that “to help prevent such concerns regarding the quality of decisions taken by IBRC management arising in the future”, Noonan requested a further meeting take place between the former Secretary General of the Department of Finance, John Moran, and the then CEO of IBRC.
This meeting took place in August 2012. The spokesperson said: “At that point, the transaction had been concluded and no further action could have been taken.”
As part of the deal with the Troika, the government put in place new frameworks to ensure proper handling of the sale of assets (on 29 March 2012).
A senior Department of Finance official was seconded to IBRC in October 2012 to “explore opportunities for deleveraging with a view to maximising the recovery for the taxpayer”, the spokesperson added.
They said this provided “greater oversight, given that a number of matters within IBRC at that time raised concerns with Department of Finance officials”.
‘Hen’s teeth’
Junior finance minister Simon Harris echoed these comments when answering Murphy’s questions about the issue in the Dáil this evening. He said the decision to liquidate IBRC was taken in the context of minimising the overall cost to the state.
Murphy was not impressed with his response, saying she could have written it herself by piecing together the answers she got to previous parliamentary questions.
She also noted her disappointment that Noonan was not present to answer her queries directly.
Originally published: 16.29
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This has the potential to become huge.
INDEPENEDENTS KICK ASS !
Labour being the ass
Why did you put “obsessive’ TD” in the headline, Is this intended to make Ms Murphy appear deluded, Or just more journal spin,It’s Time to stop this your readers are not stupid.
Hi ItsTheLaw, Orla is out of the newsroom at the moment so I’ll answer for her.
It comes from Catherine Murphy TD herself, who describes herself as “a slightly OCD independent member of the Oireachtas’ in the second-last paragraph of the story. We wanted to put that in the headline, but OCD is an anxiety disorder with a specific set of conditions, and without the context of the rest of Deputy Murphy’s quote, it looks as though we were belittling her work if we used the phrase ‘OCD TD’. Also, on a more stylistic issue, as opposed to that substantive one, ‘OCD TD’ looked very clunky in the headline. So we took the ‘obsessive’ from OCD and used that instead. Hope that clears it up.
I for one like my TDs to be obsessive about public accountability, value for money etc
That’s the kind of obsession we should all admire.
Catherine Murphy is an excellent TD, always has been…..tireless in the face of bs cynicism elsewhere in the Dail.
Still a crappy headline. A whiff of Hugh to it.
And the rot In the Irish government continues. It’s like a festering cesspool. When will we all wake up.
Christine can you answer my question ? Why do so many comments get deleted if they slag off Fg/Ff/L as a lot of mine do yet some of the comments against Sf/Aaa etc are disgraceful yet you leave them on
Because they are defamatory?
At least publish what the redacted sheets look like Redactulous
http://www.broadsheet.ie/2015/04/21/redactulous/ it is just ridiculous the amount that is blacked out.
The Irish Independent will kick her ass…watch out for Murphy being caught doing something, whether fact or fiction, and the Indo pounding her!!
The Esat Digiphone licensing scandal all over again? In the Blue corner: DoB, Kenny, Smoothie Noonan…and in the Red corner….Micheal Martin…Ms. Murphy and just about everyone else! IW the scandal that keeps on giving…
Wasn’t Mr. FG himself…Alan Dukes in charge of IBRC?
Ok DoB gets a discount of €15mln then buys Site Serv for €45mln then gets €100′s of millions in a water meter installation contract. Nice! And FG in charge of the Min. Finance, Min. Environment (Iw)-Hogan {what Party does Tierney vote for I wonder?}, and…IBRC {Chairman former Fg Taoiseach}. The optics ain’t good-great deal though-Insider Trading, anyone? If I’d known I’d get the water contract would have found that measly €45mln somewhere :))
Typo-discount €150mln not €15mln. Good article Journal!
Pontius, the pension bill for the current Labour Ministers alone is €15mln. Despite an economic crisis no appetite for “cuts” there-not even within reason. Scam Artists the lot, 1 rule for us, another for them €2500 per week pension FFS! Why do we take this **it lying down?
Tiocfaidh bhur la Dob, le cabhru dia… treasonous korrupt skumbag, and puppetmaster owner of our current taoiseach and his rat FG and labour minions.
The ‘obsessive’ is there as it was how Murphy describes herself in the article, in fact she is quoted as calling herself “a slightly OCD independent member of the Oireachtas”. OCD refers to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I don’t think it’s there for malicious reasons.
There should have been no requirement to mention OCD or Obsessiveness at all. After all, this is an independent politician doing what is correct on behalf of the people of Ireland. Investigating shady transactions, of the IBRC and KPMG.
One would have to wonder why Noonan, was seeking consultation from commercial financial consultants an stock brokers, such as KPMG, PWC, and now Goldman Sachs, with huge swaths of venture capitalists clients? This in effect threw open the doors to the Irish treasury, with such vast sums of money now available to these companies, there is no doubt that some underhanded movements where made. Instead Noonan overruled any queries from our own Department of Finance.
I will never believe that KPMG, and Noonan ever worked to “gain the best return for the tax payer”, their on going rhetoric from the beginning. Instead, they had a fire sale with many commercial portfolios, with massive losses to the tax payer of Billions.
One would wonder, given the chance to help thousands of Mortgage holders strangely caught up in the IBRC with Anglo Irish Bank, the chance to refinance there own loans with other regulated entities. Allowing them to get some foothold again on their lives, by helping those who where maybe defaulting and in great danger of losing their homes, or assisting those in negative equity, to re-aline their mortgage more in line with the current value of their homes.
This would have better influenced other banks, including AIB, and PTSB, owned by the taxpayer, to follow suit. In the long run it would better served the Tax payer, as they would have received a better return from this type of sales transaction. Instead we now see AIB, PTSB, and BOI, selling of their loans in similar fashion, and leaving people, already in dire financial difficulty to deal with Venture Capitalist companies who have little remorse, no requirement to adhere to the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears, and a singular interest on maximising their own profitability. Although these companies including MARS Capital are not reported on when it comes to Home Repossessions, so the overall statistic on repossessions is marred.
KPMG, always used the line that “it would take too long to deal with individual mortgage holders. So time constraints where against them.” Yet the IBRC was running for over three years, at a cost to the taxpayer of 1.5 billion, managing INBS, book of just 1.8billion, short of any fees payed to KPMG, and PWC. Three years would have been enough to address a substantial number of mortgages, and receive a higher return on sales than the less than 30cent in the Euro payed by Oaktree, who subsequently set up MARS Capital. Now staffed with ex IBRC personnel.
Whatever decisions that where being made, they where not in the interest of the tax payer that is for sure.
Oh and while we are obsessing about the 100million write down Denis O’Brien received for Sierra/Sitserv, the MARS Capital deal in buying the INBS Mortgage book, constitutes a 1Billion Euro write down. Not sure where the savings where made?
Wear are investigative journalists.
Murphy has been absolutely dogged in her pursuit of this issue. We need a dozen more like her in the Dail.
Incidentally, if its proven that this cost the taxpayer money, then the PAC should drag everyone involved in front of them for proper scrutiny.
She’d make a great Taoiseach !
We truly need more people like her running this country,She has an objective view rather than the parasitical morons who facilitate the demise and privatisation of our republc
WJ, I like it…c’ mon McGuinnes PAC….where are ya?
Even bigger news ‘Were Jammin makes a comment and not a single FG troll responds’……speaks fathoms.
Fianna Fail jumping on the badwagon after catherine murphy does all the work. Typical
Fair play to her .
I hope she is given credit for the work she has done. Many reluctant to give mick wallace appraisal for exposing some serious issues with our police force.
You were doing grand til you mentioned the vat Rodger.
I have always felt that Irish Water and the corruption behind it , would be the absolute downfall of this arrogant Government and its beginning to happen .
Even with all the cover ups , the jobs for the boys corruption, with Denis O’Brien – Excuse the pun – but it has finally Leaked completely at last – thanks to a persistent TD .
Congratulations Catherine .
While those corrupt articles in FF try to jump on the bandwagon !
General Election – very soon now .
Fianna Failure have been quiet for almost the whole Dail term and now they come out fighting. Is there an election coming up in the next while?
She’s swimming against the tide but a Tsunami could erupt soon enough!
This is issue was reported on many times in 2014.
Well Done Catherine Murphy, T.D. Trojan work. Keep chipping away and the truth will out
Well done Catherine. Get to the bottom of it.
People criticised by the tribunals on a national level should not be getting state contracts.
If anyone was getting contracts would prefer Joe the Plumber who lives in Ireland and pays Tax! You know the biggest beneficiary in this pays No Tax FFS. I’d say owning the Media-Tv-Radio-Newspapers-Petrol stations was enough already. Are there no laws in the EU against 1 guy owning the whole country? Makes Berlusconi look like an amateur :) . Bannana Republic.
A lot of questions need answering from the likes of Michael Noonan et al. Labours support for this government could become untenable with many of its back benchers calling it a day….early election possibly??
Always nice to see articles that the trolls dont go near…well done Catherine Murphy…accountability in Irish Politics is an issue that needs to be addressed ASAP…otherwise its just an endless pitiful cycle
I have immense respect for Catherine Murphy. She is immensely diligent, principled, fearless and highly effective.
There could not be more contrast between her effective an invaluable role and the impotent pawns, yoked by the party whip in political parties.
IBRC deserves full investigation and scrutiny. The redaction needs to be removed. we need full transparency. The tax payers have picked up the tab. Let’s have the full truth.
Respect to Catherine Murphy.
IBRC – Alan Dukes – former Fine Gael minister. Move along folks, nothing to see here.
Who has paid big into fine gaels election pot and who has taken fine gaels crippling debt and cleared it since the last election as prior to the last election fine gael coffers were in a dire situation ,and if we go back to the last time fine gael were elected in the 90s , a debt of over 3 million was cleared during their short tenure in goverment
I know she is calling for an inquiry but please NO. I can tell you the outcome. Cost=100 million. Outcome: no one is guilty, perhaps “we all made mistakes”. Waste of time and money, justice is not something that happens in Ireland.
An independent enquiry is what she’s calling for not a one sided show
Fair play to Murphy. For every Healy-Rae or Lowry on the Ind benches there’s a Murphy or Daly doing work of substance. Much better value than vast majority of party backbenchers.
I’m just wondering about the headline; does Murphy describe herself as “obsessive”, or is it a term others have used about her? It’s not clear from the article, and I’d be interested to know who used the term if it was not Murphy.
Dunno why that comment ended up here, I meant to post it as a separate comment.
Added to that, the “2013 IBRC liquidation Bill” passed by unanimous vote in Dail on the so called Prom Night, and or Night of Lapgate, contains paragraphs of text citing any Micheal Noonan, and the Management team of KPMG, are protected from any investigation, summons or litigation should any example of wrong doing resulting from the process of sales be revealed.
This is written into the act, all signed and passed by members of the Dail, on that night, overseen by the Ceann Comhairle, and put into writ by Micheal D.Higgins.
This Bill should never have been passed without proper knowledge of it contents being revealed to the house, the members being confused and distracted, and not all being fully in control of their own faculties, or focused on the matter at hand, it should be deemed fundamentally flawed and as such, should be found unconstitutional, and be amended.
Not even Micheal Noonan would pass the Mortgage Protections Bill, without thoroughly reviewing it’s contents, this he stated at a chamber meeting himself in September 2014, and that bill has yet to be passed at all.
When it comes to his own protection he is precious, when it comes to the protection of the Public he is reckless, and ignorant and condescending.
stinks to hi heaven,great work Catherine,i wasn”t impressed either with that Twerp” Simon Harris”s answer,little jumped up Article,Not fit for Purpose,,,,roll on the Election”"
Good woman Catherine Murphy, a fine TD, the type of TD I admire greatly, many more TDs of her calibre are needed.
Sorry, I forgot to congratulate Catherine Murphy on a sterling piece of work. Wouldn’t we have a great little country if there were more like her !
imprisonment for all those who don’t pay for water or tv licences!
meanwhile rapists and robbers get away with a slap on the back.
ireland definitely has its priorities right.
Any Garda seen protesting against IW must be locked up-Fact!!
We need some really good journalists to get into this – - along the lines of Woodward and Bernstein. Follow the money, it stinks of Lowryism. Something tells me this is their Watergate.
I am so proud of Catherine Murphy as my TD from North Kildare. She is tireless, hardworking & utterly principled. Obsessional” is self deprecating & an unnecessary part of the article title. Great work, Catherine!!
The Indo will be all over this.
Lol
Is’nt a pity justice is not independent of government !!!!!.
Labour’s silence is deafening.
Love to start a petition on change.org for Kenny’s resignation. He hasn’t a clue what’s going on or he’s party to it, either way his position is no longer tenable and needs to go. Sick of this. Said all along this is a multi-million tribunal in the making, a waste of money tribunal to find out how we wasted money.
Kenny won’t go hungry, while the people he ‘represents’ pay for the continued corruption and greed
€5m to the directors of a company which was being sold at a €100m write off. Sometimes I think I’m dreaming reading the news here
Anyone care to word it? :)
Journal gets a lot of flack but this is great reporting. Excellent.
An awful lot of comments being removed from this thread for no particular reason as far as I can see
Diarmuid, forget to comment on this post also ??
The silence from the fg frapperoom is deafening and is shouting volumes…
Bowe, the Trolls are already primed on strategies to post against IW protestors/objectors. etc. This is new. They’re awaiting the “Party Line”/guidance.
Can’t read it with my shades on,Les :)
Fair play to Catherine Murphy- it’s a shame the rest of the muppets running this country are more worried about lining their own pockets and not putting the interests of our people first. This Banana Republic has to change- why do we stand waiting nearly 7 years for a banking inquiry- bend over and take being asked to pay for water a 3rd time which will only line the pockets of a semi- private company that will continue to raise water charges. And why do we continue to stand for our so called ‘leaders’ continuing to run our country into the ground- not build housing to address the housing crisis (yes it’s a crisis and its all about supply – lack of), address homelessness and chronic waiting lists across the healthcare system that is taxpayers are bent over paying for….. All the time the big €€€’s pay back the bond holders/ investors who gambled on good old Ireland who will pay back on their gambles even when not required (and bond holders are insured against) at the expense of its people.
Really! Are we proud of the Gombeens running this country who really couldn’t give a sh&t about the country’s people? No- and as for their inquiries and tribunals…. Don’t even go there. More lined pockets. What about the Bernie Madoff clanger in the states- the biggest Ponzi scheme of all times- he was fast tracked to jail- no fear of that happening here in the Banana Republic…. Sure we’d have to admit then that most of those in power are crooked and bent and we believe all their crap – sure don’t we vote for them and once they are in they couldn’t care less.
Here’s a novel idea- what about requiring all TD’s ministers to forfeit their pensions from previous jobs- sure we wouldn’t give 3 pensions to our rulers … Would we? And how big are the pensions ??? Huge. Yes, really !
And while we are at it – how about ensuring that TD’s must be trained in their ministery’s? Sure it wouldn’t be fair to expect a teacher or solicitor to be a Taoiseach or finance minister- would it? No disrespect to either profession but anyone that excels in their field normally has a background in it.
Anyway, sure it will be all grand.
Catherine Murphy- I hope there are many more like you and I hope the people of this Banana Republic appreciate the good work you are doing with limited resources.
Well done to the journal.ie for not following the media herd/ govt propaganda and actually reporting on this issue – keep up the good work.
People of this Banana Republic- listen , question and expect more from those highest paid govt. ministers, TD’s and officials who we pay more than most other country’s in the world….. And we a bankrupt country! Sure they must be doing something right….. And won’t we be grand?
We will yeah!!
Catherine Murphy will get the Claire Daly treatment for this ,from the governments private security guards.
It seems someone needs to learn the difference between “obsessive” and “tenacious”.
No government lackeys on here today I see
The whole thing stinks and this government are protecting those who are involved in it, so what does that tell us???
That tells us its high time this government were gone ,
have your say