Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

People around the world were tweeting about the matter quite early last night.

The Minister stated in his interview with the Financial Times that "Any Anglo failure would bring down the sovereign". Is he convinced at this stage that he has resolved matters as they relate to Anglo Irish Bank? Shortly after the extension of the guarantee to that institution - either in late 2008 or early 2009 - I put a proposal to the House to the effect that an inspector should be appointed to oversee its affairs. I did so because on St. Patrick's Day 2009, in another interview which appeared in the international edition of the Financial Times, the Minister stated that the cause of the destruction of the Irish banking system was crony capitalism. I have the relevant pages from the newspaper if the Minister wants them.

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