Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

In a situation where he is part of the management team that dabbled in crazy property deals that brought the bank to the brink of ruin, instead of having to repay money to the taxpayer, he gets a €1.5 million top-up. Could the Minister explain that to us?

Fianna Fáil's irresponsibility in this matter is grotesque. Both in the legislation relating to the covered institutions, and the legislation relating to NAMA, the Minister has more powers than have ever been granted by Dáil Éireann to any Minister for Finance because of what is recognised as a national financial emergency. The deductions from public servants' pay were made through a Bill the title of which mentioned the fact that there is an economic national emergency. When it comes, however, to Fianna Fáil's friends in the senior echelons of the banks - not the tellers, the clerks or the porters - the party steps in and tells them to keep shovelling the loot to themselves because it is all right by Fianna Fáil and it will support them as they return to doing business as usual. This Bill is silent on such destructive behaviour.

What is the distinction between dismantling IFSRA and putting it back in with the Central Bank? It happened as soon as the level of the crisis emerged. What happened then? The Governor of the Central Bank and the regulator started to co-operate and, as the Minister has told us on many occasions, acted as his principal advisers. Mr. Neary and Mr. Hurley, the regulator and the Governor, were never far from the Minister's hip, advising him on what to do in this crisis. The Minister spoke with extreme emotion about his gratitude to them at various points during the crisis, both in this House and elsewhere. What is this financial architecture about? If the same thing happened again, would this new architecture protect us from the worst? Based on what is in the Bill, we have no idea.

This morning the Taoiseach suggested that for the four years he was Minister for Finance, he did not know anything about Irish Nationwide. That begs the question: did he ever do a day's work in the Department of Finance or did he spend his time gadding around the country securing votes for Fianna Fáil and for himself as the future leader of Fianna Fáil? He did not know. The Bill was rushed through at 9 p.m on 5 July 2006 and so much has happened since then, so many tents have been attended at the Galway Races, that the Minister for Finance can barely recall it.

A building society has taken the country for an incredible amount of money. Today's edition of The Irish Times contains a list of the building society's investments and only a minute fraction is devoted to funding houses and mortgages for ordinary people, with the rest devoted to property development for a favoured group of property developers, most of them apparently based in the London and British markets. Shame on the Minister for Finance and his predecessor, the Taoiseach, that they can barely remember if they had any contact or dealing with, or even knowledge of, this building society, even though the Ombudsman on several occasions had condemned its practices.

The then Labour Party spokesman on housing, Deputy Gilmore, spoke in the short debate that was ordered, where each party was only allowed one speaker in a debate that lasted less than two hours just before the Dáil went into recess for the summer. He pointed to what the Ombudsman had said about the practices of this society, which were possibly unlawful. The Taoiseach, however, claimed this morning that he barely knew a thing about it. I wonder did he ever even know the names of the principals who ran the firm.

Sections of the Bill deal with the qualifications necessary for appointment as a banker. Today we hope that aeroplanes will return to the skies. It might come as news to the Minister but if the pilot of a jet is flying, he or she must be trained continuously, with up to date qualifications to show he or she is suitable to fly a jet. If a teacher is to stand in front of any class at any level, he or she must show appropriate qualifications. A doctor must have the appropriate registration and qualifications. What qualifications does Michael Fingleton Jnr., the boss's son in Irish Nationwide, need? He would not be covered by this Bill because relatives of people in the banks do not even merit a mention. The boss's son could be employed technically as a junior clerk and there would not be any provision in the Bill for the regulator to deal with that issue.

The Minister should get his officials in the Department of Finance to check this but Irish Nationwide was described in the London markets as being the "crack cocaine building society" of Ireland. The Minister might profess surprise but his officials would have been aware.

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