IBRC inquiry ‘a runaway jury’ as costs spiral

POLITICIANS across all parties are at war with the mysterious commission of inquiry into Siteserv and Denis O’Brien, which has sat for four years without producing a final report into any of its 28 modules.

Senior Government sources have compared the private inquiry to ‘a runaway jury’.

The tensions surfaced in public again when Taoiseach Leo Varadkar directly contradicted claims by the IBRC commission of inquiry about anticipated costs.

The private commission was set up to inquire into 28 deals by IBRC, including the purchase by businessman Mr O’Brien of facilities firm Siteserv.

The commission, which has now been sitting for four years, has to date cost €6,682,000, not including third-party legal costs.

It was originally expected its work would conclude in October 2015 and that it would cost €4m.

Responding to queries by Labour leader Brendan Howlin, the Taoiseach said: ‘The commission’s sixth interim report, dated March 27, 2019, provided an estimated final cost of the completion of the first module of its investigation, regarding the Siteserv transaction, of €11m to €14m.’

But Mr Varadkar then promptly contradicted the commission:

‘My department continues to be of the view that the final cost is likely to significantly exceed the commission’s estimate and could be of the order of €30m.’

Mr Howlin voiced increasing cross-party political concern about the absence of clear progress in the tribunal’s as-yet incomplete work.

He said: ‘If they have not discovered any evidence of misconduct after four and a half years of investigation, a decision must be made about whether any unlawful activity is likely to be found.’