Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Either the Minister, Deputy Gormley, has been misinterpreted here or he is not being upfront with all the facts, to put it that way. The Honohan report did not report on the facts of the Cabinet meeting in the way that the Taoiseach is now speaking. The Honohan report said that 75% of this situation was due to our own fault, the Taoiseach's fault. The Minister, Deputy Gormley, said:

The Sunday we had a Cabinet meeting and we had gone through it in quite a bit of detail, as I said. So all the Cabinet Ministers were at home the night the guarantee was given. It was simply a courtesy call to me because what is required under those situations is that you have, what is known as an incorporeal meeting that is done by telephone....You couldn't just make a decision on the spur of the moment, you would have to have discussed it for days in advance. Of course not, no. You just can't do it like that. Everybody had to be involved in what is the best thing to do in the circumstances so that is incorrect. It wasn't the spur of the moment decision or anything like that.

See this speech in context