Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

We were told the fundamentals were sound by the Governor of the Central Bank and the head of the regulatory body, Mr. Neary. A whole series of other officials told us over and over again that the fundamentals of banking were sound. In the previous two years I questioned the then Minister for Finance, now Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, about his decision to allow the Quinn family and others to gamble on contracts for difference to reduce and avoid having to pay even the modest stamp duty charged on the gambling that took place in Anglo Irish Bank.

The Minister has a nerve to come in here and criticise other parties who have nothing like the track record of Fianna Fáil in terms of collaboration and collusion with some of those who have brought the Irish banking system to this low and who in doing so have put a debt on the head of every man, woman and child in this country of this generation and the next.

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