Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Cowen, I'd like to deal a little bit with the relationships - it's one line of inquiry for this committee - between the Oireachtas and the banking and property sectors. You say in your opening written statement, it's at point 39:

It has been alleged that no action was taken by our Government to deal with these risks [let's leave that]. This seems to be based on the view in some quarters, it seems, that I was in some way beholden to property market interests. This is simply not true.

Now, Mr. Cowen, each year your party, Fianna Fáil, had a marquee at the Galway Races and it became quite well known as a meeting place for many of the leading developers, construction companies and property interests in the land. Many of these individuals subsequently went into NAMA, causing huge losses to the Irish people. Many of these gave serious donations to your party-----