Department had no Siteserv records before IBRC sale

The Department of Finance did not have any records relating to Siteserv until after its sale by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) to businessman Denis O'Brien, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told today.

Department officials, including its secretary general Derek Moran, answered questions from TDs on the sale of the company to Mr O'Brien.

Mr Moran said the department did not have any records or details relating to the company until April 2012, a month after the sale of the company to Mr O’Brien’s Millington for €45.4 million.

He said department officials first became aware of possible concerns because of correspondence from a member of the public, as well as media reports.

Waterford Fine Gael TD John Deasy also asked Mr Moran and Ann Nolan, second secretary general at the department, if they had inquired about increased share activity in Siteserv prior to the sale.

Mr Deasy was told the department did not contact the stock exchange or the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement about the increased share activity.

The Waterford Fine Gael deputy said the public would be "amazed" when they heard the department had not contacted either organisation or An Garda Síochána.

Mr Moran said the matter of shares did not come under the Department of Finance’s remit.

Fianna Fáil's Sean Fleming asked Ms Nolan whether the department had an estimate for the cost of the review into all IBRC transactions, which led to a loss of over €10 million or more to the taxpayer.

The Government established the review last month.

Mr Fleming said he was "shocked" the department had not agreed a price with KPMG, the special liquidators carrying out the review.

He claimed the department had “learned nothing” and later described the investigation “as a flawed process, set up to review whether taxpayers achieved good value in a financial transaction has itself been given a blank cheque”.