Vol. 495 No. 7
47 Mrs. Owen asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of investigations being carried out by her Department, the nature of each investigation, the status of each investigation, the number of staff involved and the action if any she has taken on any interim or final reports. [21877/98]
The number of investigations being carried out and recently carried out by my Department under insurance and companies legislation is 13.
These include ten investigations under section 19 of the Companies Act, 1990 into Celtic Helicopters, Garuda Ltd., Irish Intercontinental Bank Ltd., Guinness & Mahon (Ireland) Ltd., Kentford Securities LTD., Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd., Hamilton Ross Co. Ltd., Faxhill Homes Ltd., Dunnes Stores Ireland Company and Dunnes Stores (Ilac Centre) Ltd. These investigations are ongoing except in the case of the two Dunnes Stores inquiries which are subject to judicial review. The hearing of the review is expected to commence this week.
An investigation under section 14 of the Companies Act 1990 into Bula Resources (Holdings) Ltd. has been concluded and a report was submitted on 22 July last. I have sent the report inter alia to the DPP, the Central Bank, and the Garda bureau of fraud investigations for whatever action these authorities deem appropriate. I have also sent the report to the company and to the Stock Exchange and am at present considering the responses which I recently received from these parties.
There are two investigations under the Insurance Acts one of which involving Irish Life plc. is ongoing. The second involving National Irish Bank Financial Services Ltd. has been concluded and has led to the appointment of two High Court inspectors to the company. The report itself has been referred by me to the DPP and the Revenue Commissioners for whatever action those authorities deem appropriate.
There are four officers of my Department carrying out the section 19 inquiries under the Companies Acts. Three officers are carrying out the inquiry into Irish Life under the Insurance Acts. One external auditor is carrying out the inquiry into Faxhill Homes Ltd. and an outside inspector carried out the inquiry into Bula Resources (Holdings) Ltd. Some of the officers of the Department are also involved in other work.
I asked the Minister the status of each investigation but she has not indicated when she expects reports on any of these. Is she concerned at the number of investigations and why has she not published the NIB report? The Minister said in the House that reports of all investigations by her will be made public as soon as possible. We have heard of many leaks, and comments by the Minister that she is deeply concerned by the facts uncovered by her inspectors but nothing has been published. Does she intend to publish any of these reports and specifically the one which is completed, the NIB report?
As the Deputy knows the NIB report led to the appointment of High Court inspectors. That inquiry is now before the High Court and is a matter for the court. When the report is completed it will, I imagine be published by the court as all previous section 8 inquiry reports have been.
As the Deputy knows, while the Minister can act on foot of the information which comes to light or proceed to a further stage, reports received under section 19 of the Companies Act cannot be published.
In relation to the stages at which inquiries are, I have received a number of interim reports both oral and written. I expect to receive some final reports very shortly. Some institutions are cooperating fully with the investigation, others are not. This is why the inquiries are taking so long.
I am concerned at the number of inquiries. Clearly it would be preferable if 13 inquiries and two tribunals of inquiry were not required. However, in the interest of the country and of the people we represent it is right that we should investigate alleged wrongdoing and take action on foot of that investigation. Even if that takes time and requires a larger number of inquiries than one would wish, it is preferable to carry out these inquiries and take whatever action is necessary than avoid taking decisions for fear of criticism about wasting time and money. We do not use those criteria when deciding to investigate street crime and we should not do so in matters of this kind. I hope my investigations will be completed shortly. The officers involved have been working extremely hard for almost 12 months since shortly after the publication of the McCracken report. I believe the inquiries will come to a conclusion sooner rather than later.
The Minister has a short memory. When she sat on the Opposition benches she constantly harangued the Government about delays in having reports completed. I hope we can take the Minister's word that these reports will be finalised soon.
With regard to the NIB report which the Minister has already received, can she confirm that in the course of the preparation of that report, the Government was informed about problems in AIB? When did the Minister know about the problems in AIB and the use of non-resident accounts to evade DIRT? Is it not the case that the Government was warned about what was going on in AIB in the course of the investigation into NIB? If the Government was warned why was action not taken on the matter before now?
I first became aware of the matter when the Sunday Independent published an article in April of this year. Almost every day I receive letters, some signed and some anonymous, making allegations against individuals and institutions. No responsible Minister can casually establish an inquiry on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations. When allegations regarding AIB first came into the public domain as a result of an RTE news bulletin, an officer of the Department first spoke to NIB because we have responsibility for insurance under the Insurance Acts. On foot of what he found we subsequently carried out a fuller investigation. One cannot investigate willy-nilly.
I must stress that the difference between NIB and AIB is that we have responsibility for insurance and the breaches that occurred in NIB related to the insurance industry in the first instance. NIB was selling products for the sale of which they had no authorisation. That is a serious breach of insurance legislation. That is why that is different from the tax related matters which have come to light in AIB.
Even if the Minister got information, she would not pass it on.
I got information and I passed it on.
