Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 May 2012
81 Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Finance if he will accept that unsafe loan undertakings provided by solicitors to banks, made public by the National Asset Management Agency during March 2010, are in reality property transactions to which principles of moral hazard apply. [22565/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraI presume the Deputy is referring to information made public by NAMA in March 2012. I am advised by NAMA that the estimated value of downward adjustments applied to the consideration paid to banks in respect of the acquisition of loans as a result of security defects identified in legal due diligence is €477 million. I cannot comment on particular transactions, however, I am assured by NAMA that only a minor part of the adjustment to valuations related to legal undertakings provided by solicitors.
82 Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Finance as the holder on behalf of Irish citizens of majority share holdings in Allied Irish Banks and the bank formerly known as Anglo Irish Bank and significant shareholding in the Bank of Ireland, the number of civil proceedings in respect of false loan undertakings provided by solicitors to these banks that have been initiated; the identities of defendants and the number of settlements if any. [22566/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be aware, under the Relationship Frameworks, the Boards of the Banks are responsible for the day-to-day management and operation of the respective institutions including decisions regarding civil proceedings taken and I have no role in this matter. The question of whether an undertaking provided by a solicitor to a bank is ‘false' is a matter of determination by a court of law (with involvement of Gardaí and supervisory authorities if fraud is asserted) and AIB, Bank of Ireland and IBRC cannot therefore estimate the extent to which such findings will be arrived at by a court of law. The banks have confirmed that, in appropriate cases, solicitors who have not fulfilled their undertakings to them have been and will be pursued. The Deputy will appreciate that it would not be appropriate for the banks to name defendants in such cases.
