Adams calls for statement on Anglo tapes

The President of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, has called on the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, to make a statement to the Dáil on the Anglo tapes.

The deputy for Louth-East Meath said Mr Noonan had claimed the Department of Finance had no knowledge of the tapes, but had also said to Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty, in response to a Dáil question, that the department had been aware of the tapes but not of their content.

Mr Noonan, in response to Mr Doherty, said his department was aware of the existence of tape recordings of phone conversations in the bank, that there were a number of investigations progressing into Anglo Irish Bank, and that the board and senior management of Anglo/IBRC were fully co-operating with them. "It is not the role of the department to interfere with investigations that are being conducted by the authorities."

Responses

Mr Adams said the responses raised important issues and the Minister for Finance should make a statement to the Dáil before the recess.

Yesterday, a spokesman for Mr Noonan said again the department had been aware of the practice requiring banks to record certain classes of telephone conversation but had not known what was on the Anglo recordings.

Yesterday, the Sunday Independent published more transcripts from the tapes, again involving former Anglo chief executive David Drumm and former head of treasury John Bowe.

Extracts

In the extracts, the men discuss the situation facing the bank in November 2007, a year before the State guarantee, and whether it should cease issuing new loans. The financial crisis “could go on and on”, Mr Drumm says.

Mr Bowe says: “Equity markets are killing us. Debt markets are . . . ugly. I am being a bit negative now. It certainly looks blacker than it did.”

He says there is a finite amount of time during which the bank can continue to cope with the conditions it is facing. “We don’t have collateral we can pledge, loans we can turn into covered bonds . . . we are living on short-term fixes.”

Meanwhile, the inquiry into the source of the tapes is understood to be examining what tapes have come into the public domain, and what tapes were given to the various parties that got access to them by way of court discovery orders or investigations being conducted by the State.