Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Is the Taoiseach expecting us to believe that he never asked the official any questions about the meetings he attended? The next most senior official, who was in the room that night as well, worked closely with this Government for well over a year. He regularly attended the Economic Management Council with the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, at which bank-related debts were discussed. Did the Taoiseach ask him no questions during that time?

If the Taoiseach actually believed his own smears he would have used his complete access to officials and records to put the information into the public domain, but for two and a half years he has done nothing of the sort. Worse, he has taken no action to put in place any form of independent inquiry to produce the information he maintains is urgently needed.

I have no doubt that those the Taoiseach seeks to slur acted in good faith and on the basis of the best available information. They reached the same conclusion as the Taoiseach reached and he has not produced a credible alternative to what they decided that evening. His decision to take the low road reflects more on him than them. His first preference has always been to make an inquiry as political as possible and to take as long as possible. When the Oireachtas inquiries referendum was defeated in 2011 because the people did not trust this Government with the extra powers it was seeking, there were many alternatives open to the Government but none of them has been taken. This is not because of the need for any advice, it is because it was decided that the only inquiry Fine Gael and the Labour Party seek is one which can be trusted to be controlled directly by them.

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