C&AG to examine Siteserv sale to Denis O’Brien’s Millington

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has insisted the State's financial watchdog has the authority to investigate the sale of Siteserv for €45 million, at a loss to the State of €105 million.

As renewed calls for an independent inquiry into the controversial 2012 sale were made in the Dáil, Mr Kenny said the comptroller and auditor general (C&AG) would examine the sale of the company.

The Taoiseach said yesterday freedom-of-information documents would be released today that would set out Minister for Finance Michael Noonan’s position. Mr Kenny told the House: “The Minister has nothing to hide.”

However, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the Taoiseach “proposes to have a very narrow framework for an inquiry into one aspect of the deal, whereas the material from the Department of Finance cries out for far more transparency regarding how this [sale] was conducted”.

Independent inquiry

Mr Martin and Sinn Féin leader

Gerry Adams

asked for an independent inquiry into the sale by IBRC of the company to businessman Denis O’Brien’s Millington for €45 million. A subsidiary, GMC-Sierra, then went on to win the largest contract awarded for the installation of water meters.

Mr Kenny said the Minister for Finance was very happy the C&AG should look at the issue and the Minister was completely confident in his analysis that there was value for money in the sale.

Mr Kenny said to the Fianna Fáil leader: “I hope you are not questioning the integrity of the Minister for Finance,” who, he added, had saved the taxpayer billions.

As the issue was raised for the second day in a row during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil and later on the Order of Business, Mr Martin said the C&AG’s inquiry would be very narrow .

He said the comptroller would not be able to deal with all areas of concern raised by civil servants in the department.

Those concerns included the decision to allow the sale to be run by Siteserv’s advisers, and that shareholders in a company “that was essentially bust got €5 million to vote”.

Mr Martin said the IBRC chairman Alan Dukes persuaded the Minister not to go ahead with an independent review that his civil servants had called for.

Mr Martin stressed that officials in the department also expressed concern “at the large number of transactions that have been poorly executed by IBRC”.

But Mr Kenny said the comptroller “has a constitutional responsibility to determine and adjudicate on value for money for the taxpayer and that he will be asked to do”.

The Taoiseach described the former Anglo Irish Bank, which became IBRC, as the "rotten carcass" that cost the country €34 billion.

Old procedures

He said the sale of Siteserv to Millington, was conducted under old procedures put in place by the last government. This meant the sale was not automatically notified to the Department of Finance.

Mr Noonan changed the procedures to make it compulsory to alert the department to a sale.

The Taoiseach stressed Mr Noonan had been clear in his concerns about the decision-making in IBRC around transactions like the Siteserv deal.

Mr Adams pointed to departmental concerns at the number of very large transactions of over €100 million that were poorly executed.

“This issue goes to the very heart of the relationship between governments in this State and big business. It’s got to do with your compliance, your subservience to the golden circles, the elites, ” he said.

Mr Kenny accused the Sinn Féin leader of being the "ultimate hypocrite" and told him: "Don't come in here and accuse Minister Michael Noonan of deliberately hiding something that the public should know."