Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach will recall that, when we heard some weeks ago that Anglo Irish Bank had increased the salaries of some of its staff, both Deputy Kenny and I asked him about that in the House. He told us there was nothing he could do about it because it was all a matter for Anglo Irish Bank and its board and that the Government would not or could not intervene or interfere in the matter. Yet, according to the article, there was a direct interference by Government, through the Department of Finance in which, in effect, the Government was encouraging the chairman of the board of the bank to doctor the information being released to the public, not to share with the bank's shareholders - there is some responsibility on the boards of banks to inform shareholders - as they were in 2008 of the real state of the bank's finances. According to the article, the Government was directing the bank to put a gloss on the information being issued as part of the 2008 annual report, and it even went so far as to draft a less negative letter to go with the report.

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