Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 October 2019
71. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Finance the number of financial settlements reached by his Department and statutory bodies within his remit nationally; and the number which included confidentiality clauses in each of the past five years by organisation. [44062/19]
View answerMy Department has made 4 financial settlements from 1 January 2015 to date. A breakdown of these is contained in the following table.
|
Year |
Number of Financial Settlements |
Number of which included Confidentiality Clauses |
|
2015 |
1 |
0 |
|
2016 |
0 |
0 |
|
2017 |
1 |
0 |
|
2018 |
1 |
1 |
|
2019 |
1 |
1 |
There are 17 bodies under the aegis of my Department, 11 of which have not reached any financial settlements within the past five years. These are the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, Credit Review Office, Credit Union Advisory Committee, Credit Union Restructuring Board, Disabled Drivers Medical Board of Appeal, Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, Investor Compensation Company DAC, Irish Financial Services Appeals Tribunal, Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland and Tax Appeals Commission.
The National Asset Management Agency has reached 2 financial settlements in the past 5 years, in 2018 and 2019 respectively. The terms of both settlements are confidential.
It was not possible for 3 bodies, the Central Bank of Ireland, the National Treasury Management Agency and Home Building Finance Ireland to respond to this information request in the time available and therefore I will make arrangements to provide a response in line with Standing Orders.
In respect of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), it is not possible to provide the requested information as I am advised that a manual exercise would need to be undertaken, at considerable expense to the liquidation of IBRC, in order to collate this information. While IBRC records the claims it is involved in and the status of each of those cases, IBRC does not have summary data readily identifying which claims were the subject of a financial settlement (including those with confidentiality clauses) in each of the last 5 years.
The Office of the Revenue Commissioners has provided the following details in relation to financial settlements reached in the past 5 years:
|
|
Total No. of Financial Settlements reached in the past 5 years |
No. which included confidentiality clauses |
|
Tax appeals settled and resulting in financial payment by taxpayer (There were no cases where Revenue made a financial payment to a taxpayer) |
2015 - 38 2016 - 7 2017 - 4 2018 - 11 2019 - 24 |
2015 - n/a 2016 - n/a 2017 - n/a 2018 - n/a 2019 - n/a |
|
Court litigation settled and resulting in Financial Payment by either party |
2015 - 7 2016 - 6 2017 - 9 2018 - 8 2019 - 1 |
2015 - 0 2016 - 0 2017 - 0 2018 - 1 2019 - 0 |
