Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I support this Labour Party amendment, which exposes the fact that Government cronyism is alive and well even after the scandals in the banking sector and the property bubble which it allowed to continue. The Government has adopted the tactic of saying Anglo Irish Bank is a commercial entity and therefore it cannot have a proper public sector pension scheme.

Perhaps the Minister of State should tell us about these banks and bankers. Does he have any idea when the inquiries into Anglo Irish Bank will be complete? Does he know whether charges will be brought against certain people? Does he have any information on the status of what is our bank? Can he tell us when the large amounts of money - in excess of €83 million in the case of Sean FitzPatrick - will be repaid? Can he give any information to the taxpayer about these matters?

The last time I spoke about this issue in the House, which was last year, I outlined the case of a constituent who had ended up in Mountjoy Prison for four days for not buying a dog licence. Yet again I have had the unfortunate experience of finding a constituent hauled off to Mountjoy Prison for a similar offence. He was arrested in the first instance and brought to the Garda station by two gardaí. He was then transferred to a further two gardaí to bring him to Mountjoy where he was committed by five prison staff who wrote up the committal forms and so on. This was all for the sake of the price of a dog licence, which is around €16. The gross injustice in this case is that the poor man did not receive the information because he is in a relatively new housing estate and An Post admitted there had been major mix-ups with the post. The Minister of State and his Government are standing over this - a hard-working, decent man being hauled off to Mountjoy Prison for the sake of a dog licence - while these characters in Anglo Irish Bank do not merit a word. I hope the Minister of State recognises the injustice of what is going on and can address it for us.

I hope there is a good excuse from the Government for its decision not to ensure that those in Anglo Irish Bank - our bank, a public bank - fall into the category of proper public servants. Perhaps the Minister of State can tell the House when they will be recognised as public servants in the full meaning of that term.

See this speech in context