Banking Sector
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-25
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Pearse Doherty (SF), Donegal

With respect, it is more than just an issue for the CEO of PTSB. We are the majority shareholder of the bank and the Tánaiste is the person who holds the share on behalf of the Irish people. There is a genuine question here. Regardless of whether we believe that this has been sold on the cheap, it is a deal worth €1.6 billion. It is not a small amount of money. We have a situation where the State, as the largest shareholder, knew there had been an offer. The bank knew there had been an offer. There was an investor call in which investors asked whether there was interest or an offer. We are being told that the executive management of the bank knew about the offer but the CEO did not. That needs to be investigated.
As the largest shareholder, we also need to know whether staff of the Department of Finance listened in to that investor call in September or reviewed the transcripts when they were published. I have those transcripts in front of me. We need to know what action they took when they heard the CEO deny that there had been any interest. When he was asked whether there was any interest, communication or offer, the CEO, on three occasions, told investor after investor there was none. It appears that is not true. We need to get to the point of who knew what when. How could the CEO of a bank that is selling €1.6 billion of assets mislead, it appears, investors in that call? It appears the Government has not really done anything to follow up on it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-25