Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I had thought the Taoiseach would come in here this evening to spell out in clear and understandable English the reason the Government has chosen to put a further approximately €20 billion into Anglo Irish Bank. The announcement made today measures approximately 8.5 on the financial Richter scale. The epicentre of this financial earthquake is Anglo Irish Bank on St. Stephen's Green under an incompetent Fianna Fáil Government in Merrion Street for the past number of years. I have no doubt but that the officials advising the Taoiseach today are the same officials who were advising him when Minister for Finance that our economy was heading in the wrong direction and into a bubble, a bubble which burst under his stewardship. These people who are advising the Taoiseach today are in charge while the public servants of whom he spoke - I welcome the conclusion of the public sector talks - are having their salaries cut and will be forced to pay for the actions of the Government for many years.

The financial after shock of today's announcement, with particular reference to Anglo Irish Bank, will be felt not for one or two years but for a full generation. This is the result of an incompetent, careless, mismanaging Government of which the Taoiseach was formerly Minister for Finance and is now Leader. This doubling of the national debt with the stroke of a pen has pauperised a rising generation. The figures bandied about today are so large they pass over the heads of the vast majority of people in this country and are couched in financial language which will ensure they will not come home to roost until the lack of infrastructural facilities, cuts in pay and increases in taxes for which they will have to fork out, becomes evident.

The banks continue to stand, systemic or otherwise. The Government has put €40 billion into a dead bank. For this House to do its job properly the Government would have had to have come into this House to explain to the nation the justification for this plan. If one asks a person to invest €1,000 in a project and then returns six months later seeking a further €1,000 investment and a third time seeking another €1,000 such person would want to see the plan which would ensure a return on his or her investment.

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