Nama-style plan was looked at for IBRC assets

The Government considered establishing a new institution alongside Nama to house assets held by IBRC when it was liquidated, the Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday.

Ann Nolan, second secretary in the financial services division of the Department of Finance, said a new “Nama-type” body was contemplated, before the Government decided to use “the structure we already have in the same field”.

Nama undertook to “buy” some IBRC assets under the terms of the liquidation and will, later this year, try to sell these. Ms Nolan said yesterday that the value of these loans was not yet clear but would be established by external valuers.

When asked by Fine Gael TD Simon Harris how the department had arrived at the appointment of KPMG’s Kieran Wallace as special liquidator of IBRC, Ms Nolan said only a small number of auditors would have been in a position to take on a liquidation of this size, with some of these excluded either because of conflicts of interest or because of being involved in litigation with the bank.

Sensitive department

“We went to our colleagues in Nama who had a tendered list,” said Ms Nolan, noting that the department needed to be particularly sensitive on the matter. KPMG was selected from the Nama list and was charging the same price as it charged Nama, she said.

Earlier, John Moran, secretary general of the Department of Finance, told the committee that he was keen to form a policy on the treatment of departmental staff who were moving to the private sector.

Mr Moran fielded several questions on the case of Michael Torpey, who will soon start work as head of Bank of Ireland’s corporate and treasury division, having previously headed the shareholder management unit at the Department of Finance.

He acknowledged that it could be the case that Mr Torpey would attend meetings on behalf of Bank of Ireland where he would previously have represented the department.

“We have very strict rules in terms of confidentiality,” said Mr Moran, noting sensitive information in banking can often have a very short shelf-life. He nonetheless identified the issue of high-ranking civil servants moving to the private sector as being “very serious”.