Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I accept what the Taoiseach says. I am not trying to impute anything to him. I want to pursue further what the Taoiseach said in his reply. The Taoiseach said he knew in March about the Quinn overhang in Anglo Irish Bank. Did he know the full extent of it in March? The Taoiseach says he thought it was resolved in July. Given what we now know, did he know the full extent of how it was resolved — so-called — in July? The Taoiseach keeps referring to corporate governance, which is becoming a mantra in these discussions, and said the Government discovered corporate governance issues in Anglo Irish Bank. Corporate governance is becoming a code phrase. We do not know yet for what it is a code, but it is code for something.

Did the Taoiseach and his Government know about the arrangement involving the ten individuals when the decision was made to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank? If the Government knew this information, why was it not shared with the rest of us who were asked to approve the legislation?

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