Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am not a racing man. I went to see the tent. Many of the builders who gave money to Fianna Fáil and other political parties will be looking for their money back given the state they are in. However, they may promise to return it to them at a later stage. I would not like to be trying to get that money from Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil is like the bees, one sees them but never the honey.

I hope that we are putting in place tough regulation and not "yes" men and women, the like of which we had before and that once and for all, when we give people a job to do they will do it. I hope that the board of NAMA will do the job it will be paid to do. I believe the Financial Regulator should have been sacked, that the Central Bank and other banks should have been closed and that we should have started at the beginning again. While many economists would not agree with me in this regard the people on the ground would. Any person running a company on a small budget would, if he or she overspent, be imprisoned. What did we do with the people regulating the banks and the country? We paid them off and gave them big pensions and are now giving them further jobs. At the end of the day there are only a few people in the country who can regulate NAMA. It will be more jam and more money for the boys and girls who support political parties in this country.

See this speech in context