Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

What happened today in this House reminds me of the day five friends of mine left Westport. They were going to Kerry and on the way the Galway races were on. They did not have much money and were going on holidays. When they went to Galway they got a tip for a horse and decided to put all this money on it. I am sorry to say, however, that the horse did not win. That is the risk that taxpayers will have to put up with now. This country has the Department of Finance, the Financial Regulator, the Central Bank and other agencies which were fully staffed with taxpayers' money. They all received benchmarking and were well paid. A year ago the fraud squad investigators went into Anglo Irish Bank and now, almost a year on, not one person in the Department of Finance, the regulator's office or the Central Bank has lost his or her job. When I saw the regulator's performance on "Prime Time", I was not surprised to see what happened with the banks in this country. One would wonder who appointed him. I do not know how he was appointed but I am sure people will tell me. Where were the Department of Finance, the regulator and the Central Bank when this scandal was going on?

In America, the man who defrauded taxpayers was brought in in handcuffs and is now in jail. Our guys, however, are out sunning themselves abroad with taxpayers' money and we now have to bail them out. It is not the first time we have had to bail them out. Does the Minister remember when Anglo Irish Bank invested money in America? This House had to be recalled and the taxpayer had to bail it out again. Does he remember what happened to the PMPA? We know who it supported. We had scandals in the insurance industry and the taxpayer had to bail it out.

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