Dáil debates

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

10:30 am

Photo of Eamon GilmoreEamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Last Friday week, 29 May, the Friday of the bank holiday weekend and the day after the House adjourned for the break for the elections, and at a time when the country was preoccupied with another matter much in the public domain, the Government decided to put €4 billion into Anglo Irish Bank. The day after, we heard that Anglo Irish Bank was looking for another €3.5 billion on top of that. This is a bank which, frankly, is a financial cesspit. We have already heard about the extent to which this bank gave loans to its own directors and to other people to buy shares in the same bank, and arranged a back-to-back loan with another financial institution to make its financial position look healthy at a time when it was anything but. Yesterday, the current chairperson of the bank told an Oireachtas committee that the bank had given loans to some of its senior managerial staff to become players in the property market.

This bank is now owned by the State and the Government is responsible for it. How much was loaned to the senior managerial staff or does the Taoiseach know? How many senior managerial staff were involved in these loan arrangements? Are they still in place and for what were the loans extended?

What is the Government's bottom line with regard to the bank? It has put in €4 billion now and the bank is looking for another €3.5 billion. Some commentators are saying that the amount the bank may require from the State may be considerably in excess of those figures. This bank is not systemic. It has not lent a cent to anybody, other than its existing clients, since last September. What is the Government's bottom line? How deep is the hole going to be for the taxpayer with regard to this bank?

I remind the Taoiseach that the day the Government made the decision to put €4 billion into Anglo Irish Bank was the same day that every monthly-paid employee in this country had their pay-packet raided with levies, including health levies and so on, to pay for the financial mess that the country is in now. What is the bottom line and how far is this going to go?

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