THE DEPARTMENT of Finance has described as inaccurate a newspaper report which alleged that Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan was mocked by City of London investors during a conference call.
The report alleged that a call between Mr Lenihan and hundreds of investors descended into farce, forcing Citigroup in the UK, which hosted the call, to pull the plug.
The Daily Telegraph
said Mr Lenihan had been speaking for less than two minutes on Friday before a mistake by Citigroup meant that the bank's clients were all able to be heard on the line. It said some traders were making "chimp sounds" and that another cried out "dive, dive".
The Telegraphreported that the call descended into chaos, with one participant heard to say "this is the worst conference call ever", before Citigroup officials shut down the line.
A spokesman for the National Treasury Management Agency, which organised the conference call with the Minister, said technical issues arose at the beginning of the call when a Citigroup executive was introducing the call. "There was an element of silly messing by various participants in the call when they realised that they could be heard," he said. However, the spokesman said that no comments were directed to the Minister or about Ireland during the technical glitch. "To suggest otherwise would be completely misleading," he added.
He claimed that the portrayal of the call may have arisen from the holders of subordinated debt in the Irish banks having "sold a line" to the Telegraphfor its story.
Mr Lenihan has said he would expect the subordinated bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide to make a significant contribution to the potential €40 billion cost of the lenders.
A Department of Finance spokesman said the reports were incorrect. "The Minister was not interrupted as reported by the Telegraph. There was no heckling - indeed participants congratulated the Minister and the NTMA."
He said a number of media organisations were on the call and that none of these "offered a similar analysis to the Telegraph, which was not on the call".
"At the end of the call, spreads on Irish bonds narrowed, which indicated that the 200 investors on the call were reassured."
Mr Lenihan participated in the call, a transcript of which could not be provided by the NTMA, following the announcement of the final estimate for the Anglo Irish Bank bailout, which he said would be at least €29.3 billion.
