The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) was the name given to the entity formed in 2011 by the court-mandated merger of the state-owned banking institutions

Anglo Irish Bank Anglo Irish Bank was an Irish bank headquartered in Dublin from 1964 to 2011. It began to wind down after nationalisation in 2009. In July 2011 Anglo Irish merged with the Irish Nationwide Building Society, forming a new company named the Iri ...

and

Irish Nationwide Building Society Irish Nationwide Building Society was a financial institution in Ireland from 1873 to 2011. One of the country's oldest financial institutions, it was originally called the Irish Industrial Building Society; it changed its name in 1975 when it had ...

. Following a High Court order on the application of the

Minister for Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

, Michael Noonan, the Irish government drove through overnight legislation to liquidate the IBRC in February 2013, with the emergency action required given a leaking of plans in the press.

History

(INBS) had been effectively nationalised in August 2010, after receiving a €5.4bn government bailout., while

had been taken into state ownership in January 2009. The two institutions had been widely criticised for their role in the risky lending practices that led to the Irish banking crisis. The removal of both failed banks from the Irish banking system was a key objective for the new

Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil É ...

-led government. Michael Noonan, the

, made an application to the High Court using his powers under the Credit Institutions (Stabilization) Act 2010, requesting that the assets and liabilities of INBS be immediately transferred to Anglo Irish Bank. The newly merged entity was named the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. The Finance Minister stated that the new name was important to remove the "negative international references associated with the appalling failings of both institutions and their previous managements".

Liquidation

On 6 February 2013, the board of the IBRC was stood down by the Irish government and replaced by accountancy group

KPMG KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations. Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...

. Michael Noonan introduced emergency legislation to liquidate IBRC, and replace its promissory notes with bonds with an average maturity of 27 years.

Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).Article 15.1.2º of the Constitution of Ireland rea ...

began debating the legislation a few minutes after midnight on 7 February. Opposition politicians reacted with instant universal dismay and condemnation of the Fine Gael- Labour coalition's actions and the driving through of legislation during the night. Independent TD John Halligan deemed the legislation "madness", with

People Before Profit Alliance People Before Profit ( ga, Pobal Roimh Bhrabús, PBP) is a left-wing to far-left Trotskyist political party formed in October 2005. It is active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. History PBP was established in 2005 as ...

Richard Boyd Barrett Richard Boyd Barrett (born 6 February 1967) is an Irish People Before Profit/Solidarity politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dún Laoghaire constituency since the 2011 general election. Boyd Barrett is a former member of Dún ...

protesting "Only 2 hours 15 mins to read & vote with no details of broader deal in Europe"—both comments made on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Independent TD

Shane Ross Shane Peter Nathaniel Ross (born 11 July 1949) is a former Irish Independent politician who served as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport from May 2016 to June 2020. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Rathdown constituency from 20 ...

called the showdown a "humiliation" and expressed particular concern about Section 17 of the Bill, which awards wide-ranging powers to the finance minister, while his fellow Independent TD Stephen Donnelly suggested it was "entirely plausible" that Section 17 is unconstitutional.

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of ...

TD Joe Higgins described the rapid developments as "chaotic". Finance Minister Noonan also made reference to the hundreds of people who were effectively sacked on live television; according to

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gr ...

finance spokesperson

Pearse Doherty Pearse Daniel Doherty (born 6 July 1977) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal constituency since the 2016 general election, and previously a TD for the Donegal South-West constituency from 2010 t ...

the workers found out from

Bloomberg Television Bloomberg Television (on-air as Bloomberg) is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, reaching over 310 million homes worldwide. It is hea ...

that they had lost their jobs.

Commission of investigation

In 2015, the government proposed a

motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and m ...

in the

Oireachtas The Oireachtas (, ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the bicameral parliament of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of: *The President of Ireland *The two houses of the Oireachtas ( ga, Tithe an Oireachtais): ** Dáil Éireann ...

to establish a commission of investigation into the operation of IBRC. On 10 June 2015, it was announced that Mr Justice Daniel O'Keeffe had agreed to serve as Chairperson of the Commission of Investigation.

References

External links

* {{2008 economic crisis Post-2008 Irish economic downturn Irish companies established in 2011 2013 disestablishments in Ireland Banks established in 2011 Banks disestablished in 2013 Defunct banks of Ireland Government agencies established in 2011 Government agencies disestablished in 2013 Government-owned companies of the Republic of Ireland