COURT REPORT: MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan applied to the High Court just after 9am yesterday seeking to make a private application under the Government's new sweeping bank restructuring legislation.
Lawyers for Mr Lenihan asked Ms Justice Maureen Clark to have the application "in relation to a financial institution" heard in private and to exclude two Irish Timesreporters from the proceedings.
The Minister’s court application related to the Government’s injection of a further €3.7 billion into Allied Irish Banks which paves the way for the State’s shareholding in the bank to rise eventually to 92.8 per cent.
David Barniville SC, with Niamh Hyland SC, for the Minister, applied under section 60 of the Credit Institutions (Stability) Act 2010 to have the matter heard in private on the grounds that it related to a matter of “extreme commercial sensitivity”.
Ms Justice Clark asked if the in-camera application was still relevant given the nature of news bulletins yesterday at 7am and 7.30am.
Mr Barniville said the issues running in the media were not the issues involved in the application.
The judge asked the two Irish Times reporters to leave the proceedings saying that the courts were “working our way through the legislation” and that it was appropriate to have it heard in camera.
One of the reporters for The Irish Timesasked the court for a brief adjournment to allow the newspaper to consult with lawyers to see if it wanted to consider opposing the in-camera application because the newspaper had only become aware of this.
The judge said that if she did so, she would negate the powers of the Minister for Finance if she allowed the preliminary application for a private hearing of the matter to be heard in public.
She added that she had been told that these were matters of commercial urgency.
A solicitor who was not representing any of the parties to the application was also asked to leave the court. The solicitor told the court that he had a watching brief for an interested party in the case.
The court granted the order, allowing for the second Government bailout of what was once Ireland’s largest bank. The move effectively nationalises AIB, bringing a fourth financial institution under State control, to join Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Nationwide and the Educational Building Society.