Ansbacher accounts avoids scrutiny

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, has said the Central Bank is not being asked by the Government to investigate the controversial Ansbacher accounts. Mr McCreevy said last night that he did not intend to ask the Bank whether the operation of these accounts breached exchange control rules.

The move has provoked criticism from the former minister for finance, Mr Ruairi Quinn.

The Ansbacher accounts were uncovered by the McCracken Tribunal. As well as being used to fund Mr Haughey's lifestyle, other Irish residents had holdings in the funds, which, at one stage, totalled £38 million.

A spokesman for Mr McCreevy confirmed yesterday that he had not and would not ask the Bank to investigate the offshore accounts for breaches of exchange control regulations.

Mr McCreevy also admitted that he had not met the governor of the Bank or raised with him the desirability of the Central Bank examining the Ansbacher accounts.

According to Mr McCreevy, the report of the Central Bank, which his Department asked for on August 25th, "may or may not include references to those particular issues".

In response to Mr Quinn and Deputies Jim Mitchell, Michael Noonan and Pat Rabbitte at Dail Question Time on Wednesday, Mr McCreevy repeatedly said the Bank was simply investigating the breaches of regulations raised by the McCracken tribunal report. "The report of the McCracken tribunal said that two Isle of Man accounts for the benefit of Mr Michael Lowry were contrary to the exchange control regulations then in force. That section of the McCracken report and anything else relating thereto was forwarded to the Central Bank."

According to Mr McCreevy, both the Revenue Commissioners and the Central Bank are independent of interference from the Minister for Finance. "That has been the case since the foundation of the State and that will remain the position under my remit."