CRH chief executive, Mr Liam O'Mahony said yesterday that he was "truly upset to have our name in any way linked to the Ansbacher controversy and I can assure you that CRH takes the matter very seriously indeed".

He noted that the company's former chairman, the late Mr Des Traynor, had been accused "of running, in a personal capacity, an illegal banking operation from our registered office until his death in 1994". He said CRH "had no knowledge" of these operations, and "did not benefit or participate" in them. He did not refer to evidence heard by the High Court last year that eight of the board's 15 directors in 1989 are believed to have had links to the secretive Ansbacher deposits.

Mr O'Mahony said: "We would categorically regret any misconduct or any misuse of our offices by our former non-executive chairman, particularly as, like I am sure most companies, we put great trust in the holder of that office." CRH, he added, was co-operating with the investigations.

Asked about the independent review commissioned by CRH in the wake of the Ansbacher disclosures last year, Mr O'Mahony said the report had gone to the group's audit committee and had not yet gone to the board. He said the review was not associated with Ansbacher and was directed to looking at the company's corporate governance. It would not be normal practice, he added, for the results to be published.