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MICHAEL NOONAN WAS so concerned about the “constant stream of issues” arising at IBRC that he was not confident about accounting for the bank’s actions in the Dáil.
Newly-released documents from the Department of Finance show that the Noonan’s confidence in the now-liquidated bank was “wearing quite thin” in the summer of 2012.
A total of 13 documents have been released by the Department this morning and their details have already been published in the Irish Times.
They show considerable tension between the bank and the department and how Noonan was “very uneasy” about the relationship.
Noonan’s concerns are contained in minutes of a meeting between the Minister, his officials and senior management at the now-liquidated IBRC, including chair Alan Dukes and CEO Mike Aynsley, on 25 July 2012.
They record how the Minister’s confidence in IBRC was “wearing quite thin”.
Though there are redactions throughout the documents released this morning, the use of black ink is not as heavy as it is in the documents that were released under FOI to independent TD Catherine Murphy earlier this week.
Tensions between the bank and IBRC are also apparent in a briefing note for Finance’s second secretary general, Ann Nolan, ahead of a meeting with the bank on 31 May 2012.
The appointment of the bank’s chief financial officer is described as being:
typical of the type of example of behaviour that undermines the trust between the Department and the Bank.
The appointment was made without Noonan’s approval and, the note later states:
represented a high degree of disregard for the Minister’s role and function – at worst an attempt by the bank to thwart the Minister’s need to exert a degree of oversight of the bank.
The same briefing note also problems with recruitment generally and says:
“There appears to be disregard for the Minister’s requirement to exert downward pressure on remuneration”.
Later, the extensive note says “the bank has a serious image problem” which has not been helped by media attention on issues like the sale of Siterserv, the appointment of US firm Blackstone to sell IBRC assets without proper procedures, and the bank’s relationship with developer Paddy McKillen.
The documents also record how the Department questioned the way IBRC handled big borrowers like McKillen.
They note that Aynsley was communicating with McKillen via text and that this appeared to be “inappropriate”. Aynsley insisted that communications with major borrowers “must be close but they are not inappropriate”.
Other issues concerning the Department included the sale of a high profile residential block in New York, the Arthrop Building. Anglo had funded the €273 million purchase and renovation of the building.
However, a senior official in the bank raised concerns about the valuation process and provisioning made by IBRC.
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KPMG Corporate Finance was involved in the sale of Siteserv.
The Government says that it will investigate the sale and are appointing someone to investigate from…………
KPMG!!
Like I said in another thread, it’s like putting a murder suspect in change of their murder investigation.
How can this happen?
I always thought that the Freedom of Information Act allowed a person access to requested information and not blanked key elements at the discretion of the government. More like the Freedom of misinformation.
Incredible isn’t it, one big uber connected financial gang. Membership includes, get out of jail free cards, a do as you please pass with the full knowledge that you be backed up by the organs & agents of the system.
I’m losing hope, at this point it will take a revolution to rid ourselves of these parasites.
These documents illustrate that the minister of state for finance was not in charge of his brief….at the very least. The IBRC was created by this government and it has come back to haunt them. It is their Frankenstein…..a machine out of control being run by feckless bankers and financiers. Did we not learn anything from the crash? And while the Dennis O Briens of this world weee being given large write downs on debt ordinary mortgage holders were being sold down the swanee! Election now please!
Prom Night was when?
OK,
So the only way we will get to find out what IBRC and NAMA get up to is when political ass is on the line?
Or in other words, that there is a threat that might be pushed off the gravy train.
I’d say there’s more documents been destroyed in the Department of Finance right now than there was in the last days of The Third Reich..
It’s a pity Noonan’s confidence didn’t wear a lot thinner a lot sooner. Wonder why it took him so long to lose patience…?
What issues was he concerned about? If as they want us to believe that nothing untoward happened . is he saying something was wrong about deals that had been done.
Joe soup public didn’t know something was wrong so the politicians were safe. Now we smell a rat and our eyes turn to the guy we voted in to do the job of oversight the politicians are “encouraged” to save there own jobs fast because if we think they genuinely give a dam about the problem really then we’re total fools. It’s the age old problem we have in this country, lack of accountability and responsibilities.
IBRC is just Anglo business as usual of looking after certain interests/privileged people with other peoples money knowing if the truth ever comes to light there is no responsibility or accountability and at the end of the day it will be nobody’s fault and the taxpayers bill to pay.
Why is Denis O Brien’s company’s getting any write down on debt ? There profitable collectively. If one was losing money surely it was secured by another one of his company’s so the debt could be paid or retrieved ?. I don’t understand why the taxpayer has to pay off his debts ?.
Have we just given this guy free money he does even need ?
When you buy a company, you don’t buy its debts unless you are extremely stupid. Would you buy a car and the previous owner’s bank loan with it?
Maybe he liquidated them because, as all the evidence so far indicates, he wasn’t happy with the way it was being run. we can either investigate the facts, which are only yet emerging, or ignore them and so we can jump to conclusions about a conspiracy theory.
If there is one thing though that we can glean from all this it is that the Minister was certainly not working with IBRC to engineer a corrupt deal.
Going by the red thumbs, apparently the answer to my hypothetical question is yes.On the phone to loans ‘r’ us right now in preparation for selling my eleven year old banger! :D
So they knew there were issues in 2012 and did F. all about it?
Look people this is just a charade .. Nothing more 8 yrs later .
Not as thin as the confidence people have left in this government! The final nail in their coffin.
And without Catherine Murphy, we would never have known that the Minister shared her concerns! #SiteServ
She’s being interviewed by journalists about an investigation she has pursued on behalf of the people , she is doing their damn job for them ,its a joke .
This IBRC issue originally revolved around Siteserv but it’s looking like there are more revelations about dodgy dealings with other projects and developers. Let me just grab a beer, this is going to get interesting!
Well who would of thought it. All that taxpayers money and Noonan confidence was “wearing quite thin”……..
Or to put it another way, he never actually lost confidence in irbc.
As my granny said, nearly never made it.
They have the spin machine on full throttle now.
You can see who the fall guy is going to be .
You still didn’t do anything about it. You just let them continue and now look at the mess.
What has been going on in our country for the last 7 years?
What was going on? The gravy train was put back on track. Remember Enda claiming a while back the train was about to leave the station?
Nothing will ever change in this country until the day comes where they are held to accountability.
So his confidence was wearing thin in July 2012. Amazing this was after all these deals. What came next get rid of irbc. Hmmm
I hope the people of Ireland will take to the streets soon if this isn’t dealt with properly.
BULL, if his confidence was wearing thin in July 2012 why didn’t he investigate it like the finance dept officials wanted him too AND asked him too!!!
That would upset the lads and might interfere with his promised directorship in one of Dobbies companies.
I’m not sure where you’re getting that from. Reading the FOI documents, it seems that the Secretary General of the Department asked the IBRC CEO to get an independent commercial assessment of the deal not the Minister.
All this political bull is very frustrating. It’s either corruption or complete incompetence from the government. It seems to be a game at this stage to see who the blame can be thrust upon or who can wriggle out of it the best. Everyone knows this is a farce, and FG went into government on a promise that cronyism and corruption would end. Roll on the election and if FF or FG are in power afterwards I’m swimming to Canada.
Well well the corrupt investigating the corrupt and guess what they will find they did nothing wrong
So what did he do about it?
He liquidated it.
He liquidated it after a number of deals had been done. Now he says he had issues with irbc and his confidence was wearing thin after these deals were done. Pity he didn’t have issues when deals were being done. He had no problem then. Almost blike deals done let’s shut up shop.
If you read the documents above he raised these issues within a month of the deal being done in May 2012. How can he raise an issue with a deal before it is done? The Siteserv deal was completed in April 2012. He’s not saying this now, the documents where he said it were released under FOI request this week to Catherine Murphy.
A month later he had issues . yet here we are 3 years later and although he had issues 1 month after the deal. He did nothing . so a company he had issues with 1 month after the deal was done goes on to get a government tender for water meters. Issues usually indicate something nots right but in this country you just give tenders to companies that the minister if finance had issues with 1 month after the sale. He had no issue with shareholders of a bust company getting €5 million of the people of Ireland’s money and them leaving us with an €105 million debt. He had no problem with that 5 million being paid to them because he said and done nothing.
The issues were not with the buyer. Putting aside the supposed French bid which seems to have been very late and in no way binding, the three final bids were very close. The problems as I see them having read all the documents are as follows:
1. That IBRC let Siteserv run the sale
2. Not allowing trade buyers participate
3. Giving exclusivity to Island (or anyone, they all appeared to want it)
4. Payment of fees to shareholders.
5. Not accepting higher bids
The last 4 seem to stem from the first one. Once IBRC let Siteserv run the sale, they were pretty much passengers and SiteServ basically became self serve by the looks of it.
So had Catherine Murphy just moved along we would not have gotten the information that is available for all to see now. Its time for this Government to move along. Election.
What a cluster f@ck!
Noonan trying to cover his arse.get them out with mass nonpayment and a no vote in endas referendums.
How come this wasn’t a big story in 2012 when it was reported in the papers and people like Namawinelake had articles about it?
Why were siteserve shares yielding a premium of 292% days before IBRC liquidation. Due diligence?
Just looking back on the chronology of this deal. THREE days after it was finalised – - guess who joins Enda Kenny on the New York Stock Exchange plinth,waving for the cameras?… Dennis O’Brien.
Has anybody seen YFG today?
I think Messrs Kenny and Noonan need to come forward and admit to the Irish people all they know. They need to apologise to all the victims of this affair and assist the proper authorities to investigate it and bring those responsible to justice.
Ah now, where did I hear those words before.
Anyone who thinks that when politicians are elected they are so elated because they have just won a chance to work for the plain people of Ireland needs a reality check. They are so happy to be elected because they have successfully duped voters into giving them and their cronies the keys of the larder so that they can plunder it and help their families and friends to plunder it for the next five years and if they are smart enough they will also make sufficiency contacts during their spell to help them milk the system by other means when they leave office. And the final insult, the plain people will pay for a lucrative salary for them for the remainder of their days even if they have only been elected for one term. Unbelievable. you could n’t make it up.
I see that they are already lining up Enda’s daughter to take over his seat even through she has no political background or interest. If the plain people allow it, they deserve all they get.
People seem to be very quick to allege corruption, but surely the revelations prove the opposite. I can understand people complaining that the Minister was not on top of his brief, but within six months he had taken the drastic step of dismissing the entire board and shortly afterwards the company was liquidated. Thanks to Catherine Murphy (doing the work of the media, the opposition and the government itself) we now know the reasons for this.
To summarise what we know, feel free to add to this:
IBRC were disposing of assets over which Anglo had held a charge
The board of IBRC had uncomfortably close relationships with developers
Many of the disposals were for very cut price, including Siteserv, which was sold to a company controlled by Denis O’Brien. Siteserv went on to be a very profitable company which has won government contracts
Over a period unknown, Minister Noonan became increasingly unhappy about the running of IBRC
Minister Noonan raised his concerns with IBRC
IBRC explained their actions and maintained that all their activities were proper
The minister dismissed the board
The minister liquidated IBRC
The background to this has only come into the public arena due to an enquiry by an opposition TD
The Government agrees to an investigation, the form of which is in dispute, though most agree that it will arrive in the PAC sooner rather than later
IBRC continue to defend their position and maintain there was no improper dealing
Anything else?
Namawinelake had articles about the Siteserv deal back in 2012.
It was also reported in all the mainstream media at the time e.g. Irish Times, Indo etc.
People didn’t seem that interested then.
Now leading up to an election the government are paranoid and the opposition are hungry for any dirt.
You’re slightly out on the timeline. It appears the Minister was unhappy with the running of IBRC and this was made known to them at a meeting between the DoF and IBRC management in May 2012. It went downhill from there and IBRC was liquidated in early February 2013. It doesn’t require retrospect to believe that Anglo should have been dumped in September 2008. I could see it was a basket case then and apparently Brian Lenihan did too.
Siteserve now known as shite swerve
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