Both Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton and Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton are expected to question the minister about the regulator's responsibility to act on the report, commissioned by Bafin, the German regulator. The report said Sachsen didn't have a clear view of the subsidiaries' complex borrowing and investment activities.

One of the subsidiaries, Ormond Quay Funding, ran into trouble in August when a collapse in the value of its US subprime debt investments prevented it from paying back the buyers of its commercial paper. The German association of savings banks had to assemble a 17.3bn rescue package to keep it afloat. Sachsen LB was later forced by the German regulator to sell to German bank LBBW.

Ormond Quay was not a regulated entity, but its IFSCbased parent, Sachsen LB Europe, is a regulated financial institution in Ireland. Bafin maintains the Irish regulator was therefore responsible for overseeing the activities of its investment vehicles.

The Financial Regulator has said such responsibility rests with the consolidating bank . . .

Sachsen . . . in Germany and is a matter for Bafin.

"The Dail will be debating the Markets and Financial Instruments & Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2007 this week, and I will use this opportunity to debate this issue, " Bruton told the Sunday Tribune. "I will also be tabling a question in relation to this matter and raising it with the Financial Regulator in the near future."

Burton said in a statement last week that the minister should "stop hiding behind the Financial Regulator".

"I want the minister to make an honest statement, setting out clearly the likely impact of the turmoil in the financial markets, on the banking sector in particular, and the Irish economy in general, " she said.