Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

During the course of Leaders' Questions yesterday, the Taoiseach stated to me:

There is no relevance whatever to me having a dinner with regard to what I do in the course of my duties. If the Deputy has any suggestion or evidence to the contrary, he should not abuse the privilege of this House. Let him go outside and say it and I will see him in court.

I have gone outside the Dáil. I took the opportunity in a public statement last evening to say that the Taoiseach's dinner with senior figures of Anglo Irish Bank and the director of the Central Bank and the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority was and is relevant to his duties. Also, I repeated outside the Dáil the questions I asked in this Chamber yesterday, which the Taoiseach did not answer over the course of the opportunity open to him. Instead, he threatened legal action.

I will repeat those questions again. They are both inside and outside the Dáil now. I will give the Taoiseach one further opportunity to answer them. I will repeat them exactly as I posed them yesterday. How appropriate was it that a director of the Central Bank, appointed by the Taoiseach, would be engaged in debate on matters fiscal and economic, job creation and budgetary issues with three, either then or previous, senior directors of Anglo Irish Bank? That is straightforward. Second, why did it take a question from me in the course of Leaders' Questions for the Taoiseach to offer the information that it was not only a golf outing with Seán FitzPatrick and Fintan Drury, but that he was also meeting that evening with Gary McGann and Alan Gray, a director of the Central Bank and a member of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority, whom the Taoiseach had appointed when Minister for Finance in January 2007? Why did the Taoiseach not offer that information previously?

Third, what is the situation on the Taoiseach's dinner with the board of Anglo Irish Bank in April 2008 and Mr. David Drumm's claim that he spent at least an hour briefing the Taoiseach on the issues in regard to Anglo Irish Bank? Again, I ask the Taoiseach, is Mr. Drumm lying or is it that the Taoiseach cannot recall all of the details or is it something else? It has been reported that Mr. Drumm has secured a deal with Anglo Irish Bank which will block the Garda Síochána from gaining access to confidential reports which are to be revealed in the context of Mr. David Drumm's court case in the United States. Is there any basis to these reports? Is there any fear that Mr. Drumm will evade full scrutiny in this jurisdiction and prosecution if same be appropriate because of this? I also asked whether the Minister for Finance, or anyone else, approve such arrangements as inferred from the reports before us, given that Anglo Irish Bank is now in State ownership and that the Minister for Finance has a central role in determining matters concerning same.

Those were straightforward questions and I believe they deserved to be answered. I assure the Taoiseach that I have no more regard for the word of Mr. David Drumm, as the Taoiseach suggested yesterday. I do not know the man from Adam.

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