Sutherland refuses to answer queries about AIB accounts

The former EU Commissioner and Attorney General, Mr Peter Sutherland, has declined to answer questions about AIB's handling of bogus non-resident accounts while he was chairman of the bank in 1991.

On a visit to Dublin to address a conference on global ethics, Mr Sutherland repeatedly declined to discuss matters relating to the AIB controversy.

Asked by reporters yesterday whether he was satisfied the bank had provided the Revenue Commissioners with correct information regarding its tax liability for non-resident accounts, Mr Sutherland said he was not in Dublin to talk about such matters.

Responding to questions after his address to the conference organised by Trocaire, Mr Sutherland said issues relating to AIB were "clearly outside the bounds of this debate".

Mr Sutherland's supplied script contained a call for "tough new standards" and a "surveillance system" to regulate domestic banking, but this part of the speech was not delivered. Mr Sutherland said he could not deal with all the points he wanted to raise because of time constraints. Mr Sutherland is chairman and managing director of Goldman Sachs International and was recently appointed co-chairman of BP/Amoco, the third largest oil company in the world. He is also chairman of the Overseas Development Council, a research institute based in Washington.

In his address, "Towards a Global Ethic", he called on the international community to reduce the debt of the world's poorest countries, and to increase the level of development aid. Ensuring that low-income countries did not miss out on the benefits of globalisation was a crucial test for the developed world, he warned: "Eliminating poverty is not only the right thing to do; it is essential to fulfilling the world's growth potential."

Stressing the positive effects of globalisation on living standards, Mr Sutherland called for a globalisation summit to provide world leadership. The G-7 group was too narrow and so this summit would include important economic powers like Brazil and India. A number of those present queried Mr Sutherland's analysis of globalisation. Father Sean Healy of the Conference of Religious of Ireland said greater free trade would widen the gap between rich and poor.

A representative of the Irish-Algeria Solidarity Group said BP/Amoco was negotiating with the Algerian government over the exploitation of oil reserves. The speaker asked what rules Mr Sutherland, as co-chairman of the company, was following in the negotiations, given that the Algerian government had one of the worst human rights records in the world. Mr Sutherland said he would not comment on the specific situation; however it was an "undesirable political expedient" to exclude all investment from a country.