Pearse Doherty
Question:224. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance if he is investigating the loss of documents related to the bank guarantee in 2009. [2866/14]
View answerTuesday, 21 January 2014
Questions (224)
Written answers
My Department answered a freedom of information request received from the Deputy in December 2013 in which the Deputy sought a review of a decision in respect of an FOI received in 2009 which covered all correspondence between Minister Brian Lenihan and Chairpersons/Chief Executive Officers in those banks under the Government Guarantee Scheme for the period 1 August 2008 to 11 March 2009 as per FOI 066/2009 with a renewed assessment of whether each record could be released under FOI rules.
The Department answered the request on 5 December, 2013. In its response, the Department indicated that it could not consider whether to redact or release two of the documents as it could not locate the original copies of the documents. It did however provide the redacted copies of the correspondence along with an extract from one of the letters from the Ministerial representation system.
I understand that the documents in question relate to correspondence between third parties with the Minister for Finance copied into the correspondence and are not directly related to the guarantee.
My Department is continuing its efforts to locate the original documents received in the department, and is also investigating whether copies are available from the original correspondents.