Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I also object to the guillotine being imposed on the Insurance (Amendment) Bill. I spent an hour at a Department of Finance briefing this morning trying to get my head around the quagmire of the collapse of Quinn Insurance and this Bill is yet again a case of the ordinary policyholders having to bail out this failed entity which is tied up with Anglo Irish Bank bondholders and all the rest of it. Policyholders will be forced to pay a significant levy for at least the next ten years or so.

There is no provision in this Bill to go after the €200 million in personal wealth which Seán Quinn gave to his children, yet ordinary people will be carrying the can. In that context, it is outrageous that something as important and as complex as this Bill should be rammed through the Dáil in such a short time without sufficient time for a debate and then to have a guillotine imposed on it. I urge the Taoiseach to give proper time and not to impose a guillotine on this matter which has far-reaching consequences for many citizens.

See this speech in context