Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

No, he did not. I did not hear it. We need to know. Markets trade on facts and certainty. The markets are in turmoil because there is no certainty or transparency.

Deputy Burton, with our back-up team, has researched the appointment of an inspector. It would give the Minister an instrument and a route that is legal and could be operated. Within a period, we would find out what went wrong with this institution so that we could learn for the future. If an inspector were to discover wrongdoing or corruption, the laws of the land could take care of that. In the absence of facts and an inspector, the Minister is compounding the uncertainty in the marketplace.

The systemic banking system we need to operate and function is not the Anglo Irish Bank model. It was a niche bank in a particular sector. The two main Irish headquartered banks are now in peril. Looking at their share prices, that is what the markets are saying. People in other markets are examining how we are conducting our affairs but the Minister is not offering any comfort of certainty or transparency. That is the Minister's responsibility.

I accept the Minister and the Department are working in difficult times but he must have regard to the consequences of not giving to the market what it can reasonably expect. Far too often in the past, the Irish players in the Irish market have codded themselves into believing they were a cosy little club and that the rest of the world did not matter. We do not live in that world anymore as the markets are globalised. The Minister is aware what the international press, from the Financial Times to The New York Times, have stated about this affair. We need transparency and facts. The Minister is in possession of these facts and he must feed them out in a responsible way.

See this speech in context