Anglo back to haunt Kenny

The word “rotten” clung to the sticky Dáil air as the ghost of Anglo came back to haunt another government.

Siteserv was sold by Anglo Irish Bank (IBRC) at a loss of €105m, to a company controlled by tycoon Denis O'Brien

The controversy around the curious sale by the bust bank — renamed IBRC — of a firm called Siteserv at a taxpayer loss of €105m, provoked outrage on all sides of the chamber — but for different reasons.

The unusual incidents surrounding the sale feed directly into the pre-election electricity surging through the Dáil, as Siteserv was bought by a company controlled by tycoon Denis O’Brien, whose subsidiary went on to win the major contract to install the water meters.

That shareholders were given a €5m “sweetener” to approve the sale — even though the company was a broken husk — was bad enough, opposition TDs said, but the fact Department of Finance officials raised repeated red flags about the deal, only to see them ignored threw Taoiseach Enda Kenny so far onto the back foot, he might as well have been on the back benches.

“This Government got rid of the rotten carcass that was Anglo Irish Bank,” Mr Kenny repeated three times as he seemed far more concerned with sticking to a script than answering questions fired at him by Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin.

Mr Kenny insisted his Government had “not put a cent” into Anglo, which led Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher to shoot back: “You put €5m into the shareholders’ pockets though.”

Mr Kenny insisted IBRC assured Michael Noonan the deal was “in the best interest of the State”, so that’s all right then — who needs Department of Finance experts when you have a bunch of bankers telling you what to do? And why did Mr Noonan ignore the officials’ demands for an independent probe?

With no answers from the Taoiseach, Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams helpfully recapped the plot for those who came late to the drama, stating: “We know Siteserv was sold off for €45m at a loss to the taxpayer of €105m. We also know that the same legal firm acted for both the purchaser and the seller, and that the shareholders and the director got a backhander of €5m. We also know the bid from Denis O’Brien’s company was not the highest one, and that the Department of Finance was concerned about all these matters and the minister was briefed in detail on them.”

This drew a furious response from the Taoiseach as he branded the Sinn Féin leader the “ultimate hypocrite” who was coy about his “goings on with dubious characters” in an apparent reference to the exact role of Gerry “Army Council? What Army Council?” Adams in the Troubles.

Hmmm, perhaps making a crude analogy with 40 years of violence was not the best way to dampen-down the exploding Anglo controversy?

Everyone agreed with the Taoiseach Anglo was rotten, but some Government TDs privately used the same word to describe his own performance in the matter.

Shaun Connolly