Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I wish the Taoiseach and the Government well today in their talks with the trade unions. It would be wrong to have a second one-day strike next week, and I hope the talks conducted by the Government will be meaningful, in return for calling off the strike.

The accounts are to be published tomorrow for the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. These accounts will show an estimated operating loss of €27 million. The authority was funded by Anglo Irish Bank, and personnel from the bank were on the authority's board. Almost €460 million was spent on the purchase of the Irish Glass Bottle Company site, of which the authority owns 26%. Does the Taoiseach think this is an appropriate way to conduct business? Does he have a view that the Government will have to bail out the authority because of the extent of its operating loss?

When we debated yesterday the consequences of flooding across the country, the Government was able to come up with a maximum of €12 million for people whose livelihoods have been washed away, but it now appears as if the Government will have to bail out the Dublin Docklands Development Authority to the extent of €27 million, which resulted from the involvement of bankers and developers in the unregulated and unsupervised purchase of assets like the glass bottle company site. Is it the Government's intention to bail out the docklands authority?

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