Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

There are a couple of issues I would like to put on the record and will raise again with the Minister. In the context of the praise from international quarters, I remind Deputy Kelleher of the comment by Mr. George Soros in respect of zombie banks and the fall of the banks in the context of the events of two years ago. He said in relation to zombies, "Instead of stimulating the economy they [the zombie banks] will draw the life blood so to speak of profits away from the economy in order to keep themselves alive." I believe that comment, which is frequently repeated, captures the essence of zombies. We have two zombies in Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society.

I want to make clear to Deputy Kelleher and to his compatriot in Cork, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Martin, that of concern to the Labour Party in the period after the St. Patrick's Day 2008 fall in the share value of Anglo Irish Bank and what we knew about the reputational damage to Irish Nationwide Building Society coming particularly then from London was that at the heart of our system we were developing two zombies. This catastrophic error by Fianna Fáil was a result of its close political links with the banks, something which Fianna Fáil has never stepped forward to disprove. We do not want Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland to become zombies. We do not want ordinary businesses in every town and village in the country which rely on mainstream, ordinary and, what the American's call, plain vanilla banking to be brought down by the George Soros description — which is well known in international banking — of zombie rotten institutions which bring down everything with them because they suck everything towards themselves. This is the reason Irish taxpayers are caught in a type of nightmare on Merrion Street.

The Taoiseach, when Minister for Finance, attended that famous dinner at Anglo Irish Bank headquarters on 24 April, which may have been the night former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, acknowledged he would step down as Leader of Fianna Fáil. He then went to Vietnam, which was followed by a week's holiday in Malaysia. The Carruth evidence had been given and former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, was in his final period as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil. The Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, obviously had a big decision to make in regard to his future and that of Fianna Fáil but he still found time to attend this important dinner at Anglo Irish Bank headquarters.

I repeat the important question and request from my colleague, Deputy Rabbitte, in regard to what discussions took place between the Taoiseach when Minister for Finance, the Central Bank, in particular its Governor, the regulator, Mr. Neary and the Department of Finance senior officials in the period from mid-2006 and the collapse of shares on St. Patrick's Day? I stated when I spoke on this issue the other night that people in Fianna Fáil are as smart as everybody else. Many of them were Ministers in office at the time and they had to know this was a bank in deep trouble, which is the cause of horror in this country. This is like a Dracula story in that we have woken up to find it is not maidens who are being taken away but the life blood of business. We need more information. My first question to the Minister during the questions and answers session will be about information.

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