Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 April 2013
182. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance following the statement by the Central Bank of Ireland on 7 March 2013 on the use of the deposit guarantee scheme to pay depositors at Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, the maximum period which small company depositors at Irish Bank Resolution Corporation will have to wait before being compensated from the DGS; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18436/13]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, on the 7th February 2013, I made a Special Liquidation Order (SLO) pursuant to section 4 of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) Bill 2013 (the “Act”) appointing Special Liquidators to IBRC. The appointment of the Special Liquidators is a compensation event under Regulation 8A(1) of the European Communities (Deposit Guarantee Scheme) Regulations 1995 (SI No. 168 of 1995) (the “DGS Regulations”). The Central Bank of Ireland is responsible for operating the DGS scheme. The Special Liquidators were directed by the Central Bank to provide the necessary information and assistance to allow duly verified, eligible depositors to be compensated up to a maximum of €100,000 per eligible depositor. I have been advised that in order to verify eligibility, the Special Liquidators must establish that there are no legal rights of set-off of deposits against other liabilities. The Special Liquidators are continuing to work through the process of assessing these set-off rights. The Special Liquidators are unable at this point to say when all cases will be resolved.
In order to be eligible, a small company must be a private limited company satisfying at least two of the following three conditions in respect of the last two financial years: the balance sheet total does not exceed €4.4 million; the amount of turnover for that year does not exceed €8.8 million; the average numbers of persons employed by the company does not exceed 50. These criteria are set out in Section 8 of the Companies Act 1986.
In addition, the nature of the company’s business must not fall within the excluded categories such as financial institution, insurer etc. The Central Bank wrote to all companies that held accounts in IBRC, requesting directors to certify that the company qualifies to be treated as a small company. The position as at 19 April 2013 was: Small Company Claim forms issued to company account holders - 774; Small Company claim forms returned - 124; Of which: Paid - 4; Being investigated by the Central Bank (e.g. unlimited company, dormant company) - 4; Still being assessed for right of set off by Special Liquidator - 116; No reply received - 650.
The Central Bank will make compensation payments to eligible depositors at the earliest possible date (within five working days) following verification by the Special Liquidators.
