Finance

After 9 Weeks of Asking Public Accounts Committee Finally Receives Documentation Re Bank Guarantee Decision
9th July 2010
At the end of a 9 week wait, the Dail Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has finally received the documentation it had requested from the Department of Finance regarding the details of the decision taken in the lead up to the implementation of the bank guarantee scheme on 29th September 2008.
The Committee had initially expected to receive this information well before now and had intended to examine it at its meeting yesterday, however this was not possible as the information was not forthcoming in time.
The Committee has sought from the Department relevant details relating to the period leading up to the decision to guarantee the Irish banking system on the night of 29th September 2008 in order to determine whether this move has resulted in the best value for money for taxpayers.
Committee Chairman, Bernard Allen TD said;
“Firstly, the Committee is disappointed that this information has taken so long to be handed over to us. We had intended to consider it at our meeting yesterday and were under the impression that we would have the documents in time for this. Regrettably, this was not the case.
The relevant records were provided to us yesterday after the meeting. We had requested detail regarding the events and developments which occurred prior to the decision being made to offer a guarantee the banks in 2008.
We intend to carefully consider this information next week to try to establish if the decision was in the best in the interest of taxpayers. At the centre of this Committee’s remit is to ensure that taxpayers are given value for money and are protected from unnecessary waste as much as possible.

The decision to guarantee the banks has been a burden on the taxpayer and we are determined to try and find out if it was a necessary one.”