ALLIED IRISH Banks has refused to tell the Minister for Finance how much it has paid PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which is helping management to run the State-controlled bank, citing commercial sensitivity.

Michael Noonan said, in response to a parliamentary question, that the bank, in line with its normal practice, had not disclosed the fees paid to the firm.

“They deem it to be commercially sensitive to do so in respect of arrangements entered into with individual firms,” Mr Noonan said.

“The firm continues to provide the bank in question with consultancy services and the bank remains committed to managing the cost of, and maximising the value from, this arrangement.”

Mr Noonan said he did not have a role in the day-to-day commercial decisions taken by the board and management of the bank, including the employment of external consultants and advisers.

The board and management of the bank were “aware of their duties to their shareholders to ensure that all costs incurred by the bank are necessary and reflect the needs to the business”, he said.

PwC has been retained to help the bank, which is 99.8 per cent owned by the State, through what it described as “a period of extraordinary change and restructuring”.

AIB chairman David Hodgkinson was a member of the UK advisory board of the accountancy firm from February 2009 until he joined the bank in October 2010.

The bank told an Oireachtas committee last year that there were about 37 PwC consultants at the bank in July 2011, which was expected to fall to 12 people by the end of last year.

“While the final cost of that ongoing work has not been determined, we are progressively managing down the requirement for these services,” AIB said in the letter to the Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform.