“The Black Book was the CB crisis management manual including guidance on subjects such as emergency liquidity assistance, legal requirements and more logistical issues.” Nyberg report on the banking crisis published March 2011
This sounds like something out of the Evil Dead, but it seems that the Central Bank of Ireland has a ”Crisis Management Manual” also known as “The Black Book” which is a “set of processes and procedures to assist it in the management of a financial crisis situation”. It was drafted in 2001 and updated in August 2007. Given that it was in existence before the Night of the Bank Guarantee in September 2008, before the nationalization of Anglo Irish Bank in January 2009 and the creation of NAMA in December 2009, you would think that we had a right to see this Black Book. Let’s not forget that this state has borne the €71bn gross cost of bailing out the banks – that’s the famous €64bn plus €1bn shoveled in, in March 2013 to pay IBRC bonds plus €6bn of state-aid given to the banks by NAMA.
In the Dail this week, the Independent TD for Wicklow and east Carlow, Stephen Donnelly asked Minister for Finance Michael Noonan to provide a copy of the Black Book, and…… yes, you’ve guessed it, it’s confidential. In fact Minister Noonan went further this time and said “The document was shared with the Department of Finance on the understanding it would be treated in strictest confidence given the nature of the matters treated in the document. I do not therefore propose to provide a copy of the document.”
It can’t have been a great read.
The parliamentary question and response are here:
Deputy Stephen Donnelly: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide a copy of the Crisis Management Manual, also known as the Black Book, as it existed at the end of 2006 and/or as redrafted during the period August 2007 to September 2008 under the auspices of the Domestic Standing Group, as referenced in the Honohan Report and the Nyberg Report (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21091/13]
Department of Finance, Michael Noonan: The document referred to by the Deputy in his question was drawn up by the Central Bank of Ireland to provide it with a set of processes and procedures to assist it in the management of a financial crisis situation. The question of releasing the document is therefore a matter for the Central Bank of Ireland in the first instance. The document was shared with the Department of Finance on the understanding it would be treated in strictest confidence given the nature of the matters treated in the document. I do not therefore propose to provide a copy of the document.
NAMA Wine Lake 
No ambiguity about who Noonan is looking out for People he represents or Central Bank, this document is obviously way above our pay grade / understanding.
Reblogged this on Awaken Longford.
There are procedural errors with that stance, if not outright constitutional problems. Yes, some things may be withheld but there is no confidentiality actual or implied t can be withheld from the Dail. That is why in times of war all the parties are party to everything, or at least selected members across parties have sight of everything. The Civil Service is a creature of the Houses not the cabinet.
The full implication of Noonan’s/Dept of Finance answer is that he doesn’t hold the Dail trustworthy.
V H that can only be because he has been around long enough to have seen the degeneration of a system he has been an integral part of if not a considerable contributor, that alone is grounds to consider one’s position instead for further perpetrating the sickness….
What system would that be now. The one that had little boys exposed to dirt acting as a procurer and systematically sent them to be worked to death clearing scrub or being entombed in monastery foundations or the one that had our women’s pelvic cage split. Or even the one so utterly incompetent that it hasn’t been able to deploy the wealth of a State to retain the less than 60,000 people entering the labour market year on year. Sickness, what these are attempting to do is retain a system based on a nasty racism.
It wasn’t much of a crisis management manual. In existance though the 2008 to 2011 period it must be more like the Keystone Cops training manual. Maybe he’s too ashamed to produce it.
Reblogged this on misebogland.
“You are not the Dragon Warrior. You will never be the Dragon Warrior until you have learned the secret of the Dragon Scroll.”
Master Shifu to Po, Kung Fu Panda
Could that be Master Noonan? If you have seen the movie, then you will know why he does not want anyone to see the Black Book!