Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

In Davos he said that people went mad borrowing. I do not want to be provocative but the Taoiseach should acknowledge that the people did not cause this crisis. He knows that and he has said as much on numerous occasions. All of us say things that are inappropriate or do not properly summarise our thoughts at any given moment. We all have slips of the tongue. My concern is that the Taoiseach's failure to clarify his remarks means that he meant them. This may be an insight into his belief that the Irish people, or at least the people of this State, had a collective burst of madness and were fickle and gullible. It was not the gombeen men and the greedy bankers and developers who were at fault, it was the ordinary people for being so immature. I respectfully ask the Taoiseach to set the record straight by making it clear that he does not believe ordinary people caused this crisis.

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