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Pension Provisions

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 November 2012

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Questions (238)

Pearse Doherty

Question:

238. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 207 of 13 November 2012, and 224 of 20 November 2012, if he will indicate the part or parts of Section 33AK of the Central Bank Act 1942 as inserted into that Act by Section 26 of the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act 2003, which prevent him from indicating what forecasts were produced for the cost of addressing the pension deficit at Allied Irish Banks in the stress testing exercise at the start of 2011. [52806/12]

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Written answers

I have been informed by the Central Bank that section 33AK(1A) prohibits disclosure by the Bank, its officers, employees, and agents, of confidential information concerning-

(a) the business of any person or body whether corporate or incorporate that has come to the person’s knowledge through the person’s office or employment with the Bank, or

(b) any matter arising in connection with the performance of the functions of the Bank or the exercise of its powers,

where the disclosure considered would be prohibited by the Rome Treaty, the ESCB Statute or the “Supervisory Directives”, as defined in section 33AK(10).

The most relevant supervisory directive in this instance is Directive 2006/48/EC.

Title V, Chapter 1, Article 44 of Directive 2006/48/EC, for example, imposes an obligation, on “competent authorities” (of which the Central Bank is one) for the purposes of that Directive to operate on the basis of professional secrecy. While a number of pathways for release of information are provided in the Directive (for example, a competent authority may release information where necessary to “bodies involved in the liquidation and bankruptcy of credit institutions and in other similar procedures” (see Article 44)), none of these facilitate release of information in this case.

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