Another blow to transparency in Ireland as Noonan refuses to publish unaudited accounts for IBRC for 2012
February 18, 2013 by namawinelake
When a Special Liquidator was appointed to Irish Bank Resolution Corporation on 6th February, 2013, a key question was, what was the financial standing of IBRC on that date; after all, the most up to date information was provided for the six months ending 30th June, 2012 and a lot may have happened in seven months.
IBRC published its 2011 annual report on 29th March 2012, and that report included its audited accounts. By 6th February 2013, you would have expected that IBRC would have made some progress in producing its 2012 report. At this stage of course, we don’t need a full report with full audited accounts – after all, the bank is now being liquidated. But it is likely that there were unaudited accounts which might have been finalized or substantially finalized.
Well, it doesn’t really matter because Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan is refusing to release any accounts for the period ending 31st December 2012 – either audited or unaudited. In a response from the Sinn Fein finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty and unusually describing himself in the third person, Minister Noonan said “The Minister for Finance does not intend to lay the unaudited accounts at 31 December 2012 before Dáil Éireann”
Given that this bank has received €34bn of a bailout, that it had loans after impairment of €16bn at 30th June 2012 and given it was running up costs at around €320m per annum and given its assets may now be sold at fire sale prices, at the very least, we should be getting unaudited accounts which are likely to have been prepared by now anyway. Hiding this information is just unacceptable.
The full parliamentary question and response are here.
Deputy Pearse Doherty: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will lay before Dáil Éireann the audited or unaudited accounts for Irish Bank Resolution at 31 December 2012.
Deputy Pearse Doherty: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will outline the arrangements that will apply for the publication of audited accounts for Irish Bank Resolution Corporation for the year ended 31 December 2012.
Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan: I have been advised by the Special Liquidator that no audited accounts will be required to be published for Irish Bank Resolution Corporation for the year ended 31 December 2012. The Minister for Finance does not intend to lay the unaudited accounts at 31 December 2012 before Dáil Éireann.
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