Minster for Finance Michael Noonan has said he was not informed about Judge Brian Cregan's determination regarding the IBRC inquiry until Thursday evening.
Speaking on his way into a eurogroup meeting of finance ministers in Brussels, the Minister said he had expected that the inquiry would have been covered by the 2004 Act.
“The position is that there is 2004 Act is the basic law on which commissions of inquiry are based. There have been several of them since 2004 and every one of them have had to acquire in the course of their investigation what would have been considered to be confidential information.”
He said that up until now public interest was sufficient for the judge to overrule considerations such as confidentiality. “So my expectation was that this would happen again but on this occasion the Judge has decided that there are issues of serous import that cannot be decided in the public interest on his present powers.”
The Minister said that the legal advice given to the Department of Finance in submitting documents to the inquiry was that the judge's powers could overrule confidentiality concerns.
“The Department of Finance has given every document to the Judge that he was requested and we have given it in unredacted form. We also pointed out that we had legal advice that some of the information in the documents was confidential but we also advised that our legal advice was that the judge’s powers could overrule this.”
Asked if had full confidence in the Attorney General, Minister Noonan replied:
“I have confidence in the Sole Member first of all, the judge. He has done a very good job in difficult circumstances and I hope we’ll get the amending legislation and of course I have absolute confidence in the attorney general. She’s been a very good attorney general over a range of issues. “
On the time-scale for the inquiry, Minister Noonan said the Government would expedite the procedure as quickly as possible. “You’ve heard what the Taoiseach has said. We will move with all expedition to see can we amend the 2004 Act in a manner that strengthens the public interest considerations so that the enquiry can proceed expeditiously as possible, but of course it’s quite clear this causes delay, how much delay I don’t know. “
When asked if he would be prepared to come before the Dail and explain the matter, Mr Noonan pointed out that the position of the Department of Finance has changed since the inquiry commenced.
“When the Commission of Inquiry was established I had a leading role, but once it was established under the terms of reference, the Department of Finance is one of the agencies that’s subject to the inquiry ... I’m sure the Opposition will have parliamentary questions down and I’ll answer the parliamentary questions in due course, but the inquiry is not vested in the Department of Finance....Consequently I am careful about saying anything that might prejudice the inquiry in any way whatsoever.”
