Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am concerned about social solidarity and good faith. On 29 September, the members of the Government met regarding the bank guarantee scheme and 30 September was the year end date for Anglo Irish Bank. In January, we dealt with the nationalisation of Anglo Irish bank. An issue of considerable importance in that Bill was the Government's knowledge that €7 billion had been passed from Irish Life & Permanent to Anglo Irish Bank. That was an important piece of information of which the Dáil should have been aware in the context of its deliberations on that Bill because, through nationalisation, the country is being asked to take an exposure of the order of tens of billions of euro in potentially bad debts. While I am loath to accuse anybody of misleading the House, obviously the Government, Taoiseach and Minister for Finance were aware of this. We should have a two-hour debate.

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