Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It is the old tactic. I want to make it clear to Deputy Kenny that every decision taken by this Government in respect of trying to handle a difficult financial crisis has been in the interest of the taxpayer and in the public interest, and in the interest of no one else. The Deputy asked about 29 September but there was no discussion on 29 September on those matters. What was being discussed at that time was the fact that we were facing the possible collapse of the Irish financial and banking system unless the Government was prepared to provide a guarantee to that system. That is what we did. In doing so we provided greater stability to the system.

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