Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

We can hear their opinions on whether Anglo Irish Bank should have been saved at that stage. Some €11 billion of taxpayers' money has gone into these banks to date. Within four months of the Government introducing a guarantee for Anglo Irish Bank, it had to be nationalised. The cost is enormous. We can leave aside the issue of whether the inquiry will be held in public or private for a moment as it will be decided by a vote tonight, and everybody can make up their own mind on it and answer for their vote to the electorate afterwards.

The critical element is that the Government is excluding - even from the private inquiry it is now conceding - the critical decision in respect of Anglo Irish Bank in particular. This was a delinquent bank and rotten apple at the heart of the banking system which lent money recklessly. We saw a recent "Prime Time" programme on what was happening in some of the institutions. On 29 September 2008, the Government took the decision to give a State guarantee to that institution as it was to Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks on the grounds that it was of systemic importance. That is the big conundrum and such a major question requires answers. No answers have been provided for that here.

This is one of the issues I want to see examined and investigated by whatever type of inquiry is established but it has been excluded from the Government's proposals.

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