Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

AIB has faced down the Government and appointed an insider, Bank of Ireland has done the same and Anglo Irish Bank has paid certain members of its staff an increased salary. The Irish Nationwide Building Society has ignored the guidelines set by the Government, paying after the Government guarantee a €1 million bonus to the chief executive, along with an annualised salary of €663,000. As Deputy Quinn has reminded me, it was not performance-related.

The banks have snubbed their noses at the high office occupied by the Taoiseach, treating him and his office with utter disrespect. The reason for this is the Taoiseach's complicity in overseeing light regulation or none in the four years he was in the Department as Minister for Finance.

Has the Taoiseach made an instruction on behalf of the Government and the Irish people that the public interest directors within the Irish Nationwide Building Society take whatever course is necessary, including legal action, to recover the €1 million bonus and the excess salary paid over and above the recommended guidelines set down by the Government's own watchdog?

See this speech in context