PMS Report Slams DETI 'Inaction'

There's disagreement over the plight of savers in the failed Presbyterian Mutual Society (PMS) today.

SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan (pictured) has welcomed a damning report of a Westminster Treasury Committee into the failure of the Society.

The Committee found that NI's Department of Trade and Investment (DETI) had access to information, which should have led it to act.

However, the Enterprise Trade and Investment Minister Arlene Foster said the report was "very short on facts and details".

Strongly defending her Department's role she said: "All they say is that a remedy must be found, this report does not point to any solutions," she said.

"It's very clear this report was all about apportioning blame.

"It is the shoddiest piece of work I have seen coming out of Westminster for some considerable time."

The Committee carried out its Inquiry, which included a visit to hear from savers, Ministers and others at Stormont, following representations to the Chairman John McFall MP from Mr Durkan.

Now, Mr Durkan has said it was now time that the British government took action to resolve this issue.

He said: "This report graphically reflects the good character and pressing circumstances of the savers who have been affected by this collapse.

"The report squarely identifies the regulatory failure which afflicted them. The Committee has agreed that ordinary savers could not have been expected to have identified this regulatory gap.

"While the Committee has shown more sympathy than the Treasury Minister has with their talk of 'investors' for even the smallest depositors, people are getting past the point where they want to hear sympathetic noises from different layers of Government or Parliament."

"Smaller savers have been left in a deeper predicament by last week's High Court ruling.

"This report now brings added attention and momentum to the campaign for PMS savers to receive appropriate compensation.

"People will now rightly be demanding an urgent outcome from the Ministerial Working Group. I have already tabled an Assembly Question on this matter and will be raising this matter in Westminster next week," the MP continued.

"After all that has been done to bail out various banks, this report backs up those who have asked why only the PMS savers cannot be helped. That injustice must now be remedied," he concluded.

The probe into the collapse was criticised for a "fatal regulatory gap" after thousands of savers lost access to their money after a "run" on the Presbyterian Mutual Society in 2008.

In NI there is a registry for societies like the PMS, but it has no obligation to oversee the running of a society.

The Treasury Committee found that the DETI) should have acted on knowledge it had in relation to the PMS.

The report said it was "reasonable to expect the DETI to have taken a lead in identifying the problem".

Last week, while Stormont's top team, First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness met Prime Minister Gordon Brown to discuss the problems faced by Presbyterian Mutual Society, the High Court ruled against savers.

The Hon Mr Justice Deeny, sitting in the Chancery Division of the High Court in Belfast, ruled that the shareholder members of the Presbyterian Mutual Society are "not creditors" and were therefore not entitled to receive interim payments from the administrators.

See: Presbyterian Mutual: Not Creditors

(BMcC/GK)