Anglo letter not 'doctored' - Cowen

Taoiseach Brian Cowen has denied a claim the Department of Finance directed the Anglo Irish Bank chairman to draft a “less negative letter” to shareholders about the state of the bank’s finances.

Mr Cowen was responding to an accusation by Labour leader Eamon Gilmore that the department deliberately “doctored” a statement by the then chairman  Donal O'Connor in order “to put a gloss on the financial information” issued with the bank’s annual report for 2008.

A report in a Sunday newspaper, which referred to confidential minutes from a meeting between Anglo and the Central Bank in February last year, claimed the department told the bank’s chairman not to be too negative in his letter to shareholders and specifically not to refer to the level of emergency funding needed by the bank.

Although Mr O’Connor was understood to be anxious to tell shareholders the specifics concerning the bank’s finances, the report claimed the department drafted a less negative version of his statement before it was submitted for publication with the report.

During leaders’ questions in the Dáil today, Mr Gilmore claimed the Department of Finance had encouraged “the chairman of the board of the bank to effectively doctor the information being released to the public”.

“The Government was directing the bank to put a gloss on the information that was being issued as part of the 2008 annual report,” he said.

Mr Gilmore claimed that when Mr Cowen was questioned in the Dáil recently about salary rises for staff at Anglo, he had said the Government could not interfere with the internal operations of the bank.

“But here we have evidence of a direct interference by Government through the Department of Finance,” Mr Gilmore said.

Mr Cowen insisted the chairman’s statement was a matter for the chairman, and that suggestions the Government had doctored the letter represented “a conspiracy theory too far”.

“As would be expected in the case of a nationalised bank, the draft chairman’s statement and the draft accounts for the year ending 2008 were referred to the Department of Finance for comment and the Department provided a view,” Mr Cowen said.

“The chairman’s statement was finalised to reflect the chairman’s considered views and published with the annual report. The chairman’s statement was his own and reflected his views,” the Fianna Fáil leader said.

Mr Gilmore said the continuing story of the Anglo Irish Bank had contributed more to the Exchequer deficit than any other factor. "This is the black hole which Fianna Fáil helped to dig and into which 22 thousand million euro of taxpayers money is going to have to be put, adding to our national debt,” he said.