Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

On 6 July 2007, The Sunday Business Post carried an article which stated:

Anglo-Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick raised eyebrows with his diatribe against the "corporate McCarthyism" of what he saw as over-zealous regulation of businesses. . . . Having run the boardrooms of some of Ireland's most prominent public companies, Seán FitzPatrick knows the value of picking his battles.

It was the old age pensioners last week and he won that battle.

So when the chairman of Anglo-Irish Bank and Smurfit Kappa launched into a tirade against what he called, "corporate McCarthyism", he knew the sort of reaction he was likely to elicit. . . . FitzPatrick said that the tide of regulation had gone too far. He said the increasing burden of regulation and compliance was threatening the entrepreneurial zeal that made the Irish economy the envy of the world.

He sounds like John McCain before he became candidate to be President of the United States. What does the Minister's little package this morning say to him or will the Minister just pick up the phone and speak privately to him and tell him to turn off the motormouth?

I have a number of specific questions to put to the Minister. The heart of the protection for the Irish taxpayer in this scheme is the Financial Regulator. When the Financial Regulator came to the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service on several occasions, Deputy Bruton, Deputy O'Donnell and I were there. I asked him specifically about the treatment of issues like the rolled up interest and the valuation of lending, the valuation of property-based land lending in the banks' books, and he told me the same old story, that the fundamentals are sound.

I called down to the Central Bank offices to meet him and the Governor of the Central Bank. It is a lovely office with a lovely art collection on the top floor of the Central Bank building. I spent a lovely afternoon with them. I asked them about the equivalent of door-to-door sub prime-type lending in Ireland. We all looked out the window and they told me that the fundamentals are fine. I looked out at the lovely view from the window and I was given a nice sandwich——

See this speech in context