Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I will withdraw that. We were told things that turned out subsequently not to be true. Subsequent to the guarantee scheme, the Government refused to accept that recapitalisation was needed. The Government then brought forward its initial recapitalisation plan which included proposals to provide €1.5 billion in funds to Anglo Irish Bank for recapitalisation. That announced plan did not work and was then abandoned. In recent weeks, Anglo Irish Bank was nationalised and another recapitalisation plan for AIB and Bank of Ireland was announced, giving each of them €3.5 billion. If anybody has a reason to lose confidence in Ireland and its banking policies, it is not due to anything said by the Labour Party or by the Fine Gael Party, but due to the hames the Government has made in managing this crisis. It changes every week, and I predict that it will change again. I do not think that the recapitalisation plan will go ahead. It is likely that more radical measures will be taken in the next few weeks on AIB and Bank of Ireland, and the Government will abandon its banking policy yet again. That is why people have lost confidence in the Government's ability to manage this crisis.

Deputy Byrne referred to allegations made by Fine Gael Members last week. I was not involved in any debates last week, and I certainly did not make any allegations, but I know to what he is referring when he talks about smears and innuendo. Four of the ten names are in the public domain and anybody who knows anything about those four people will know of their very strong personal, financial and other links to Fianna Fáil. It is incorrect to pretend the names in the public domain are not part of the Fianna Fáil family. They are, and we need to be honest about that. For anybody who wishes to see it, there are plenty of e-mails circulating this city laden with information outlining the connections between the maple ten and Fianna Fáil. There is also plenty of photographic evidence to show how comfortable Fianna Fáil has been in the presence of these people.

It is reasonable to examine the connections between Fianna Fáil and the banking sector over recent years. There was former Taoiseach Charles Haughey's relationship with the banks. Fianna Fáil's director of elections moved seamlessly from being head of the Irish Banking Federation to being Fianna Fáil director of elections and back to the Irish Banking Federation. Fianna Fáil cannot pretend no relationship exists there. The Government has consistently refused to properly resource the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement. The Government had plenty of money to establish robust agencies and to throw around at any project one could imagine, yet it consistently starved the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement of resources. That is because the Government is soft on corporate crime and, on a number of occasions, potentially complicit in it. The Government ensured a Financial Regulator was appointed who was not up to the job, despite the protests of the then PD Tánaiste. The Department of Finance said Mr. Sean FitzPatrick committed no crime, and the Government establishment a revolving door system whereby people who have destroyed their own banks are appointed to the board of Anglo Irish Bank and the Financial Regulator.

There can be no confidence in the Government's policies. Regime change is needed. We need the senior executives and the boards of the banks removed and replaced. We need the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator replaced. Crucially, we need to establish a bad bank to store those toxic loans so we can have proper functioning banks again. If we do not do that, we are going into the Japanese model and will have zombie banks for a decade.

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