Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

Once again ordinary citizens are being forced to pay for the gambling debts of the super-rich through a new form of tax. That is exactly what this is and what the public sees it as.

There is no better example of the greed of the very wealthy in Ireland than that of Seán Quinn, who is already the richest man in the country. He embarked on a crazy gamble involving billions of euro. If anyone put at risk the 1,600 jobs in Quinn Insurance, it was he and his family, through being prepared to gamble so avariciously in the banking area.

It will be very interesting to see what emerges from the Garda investigation into Anglo Irish Bank when the results thereof eventually see the light of day. It should raise serious questions about the relationship between Mr. Quinn, the Quinn group and the ancien régime in Anglo Irish Bank, and also serious questions about insider trading and illegal activity.

The Quinn group owed €2.8 billion to Anglo Irish Bank and €1.2 billion to other creditors. This is the result of the casino-capitalism antics of Mr. Quinn and many others involved therein over recent years. The Quinn family has the nerve to go to the courts next week to challenge its loss of control of the Quinn group. Between 2008 and January 2010, when control of the group was lost, €61 million in goods and services was approved by directors and paid to companies controlled by the Quinn family. This was on top of €200 million in capital contributions, whatever that means, from the Quinn group to the family companies in 2008.

No doubt Seán Quinn and his family regard the €740 million bailout as of no great consequence. It is regarded as loose change, or couch money, when one has blown €4 billion in the bookies of Anglo Irish Bank. However, it is a real imposition on the hard-pressed policyholders and the public, who face austerity measures day in, day out, with a consequent impact on their pay packets.

With regard to the very serious question as to how open-ended the bailout will be, the value has risen from €600 million to €738 million over the past two months. The only good point that can be made, if any, about this disgraceful and murky affair is that 1,600 jobs have been saved, at least for the time being. We know how vulnerable they are when we hear about the job losses in TalkTalk and other companies.

Quinn Insurance is part of a profitable and successful section of business and remains so. The problem is the disastrous way that the Quinn group was managed by the Quinn family. Surely it would have been more in the interest of the jobs at Quinn Insurance and the protection of the policyholders for the State to take over the company rather than hand it over for a song to an American multinational, Liberty Mutual Direct Insurance.

Seán Quinn and the Quinn family are responsible for almost 10% of the cost to citizens accruing from the bailout of Anglo Irish Bank. Instead of going to the courts next week to challenge their loss of control of the Quinn group, they should be coming up from the cells to the dock to account for their actions and the financial imposition on the people of the State.

Deputy Feighan referred to the mistakes that were made. They were not mistakes but calculable, clear, clinical and cynical moves by developers, bankers and large businessmen like Seán Quinn to make massive profits at the expense of ordinary people. They believed they would get away with it time and again. It did not work on this occasion; those responsible were found out and the banks collapsed. It is no accident that citizens are being asked to pay time and again. I refer to the bin worker, post office worker, Guinness worker, social welfare recipient, the elderly and those who can ill-afford to pay up time and again for the ills of the corrupt wealthy in this country. It is about time the Government and the Parliament state we will no longer accept this from big business. TalkTalk was able to announce it would wind up in a short period of time but we are not prepared to introduce company law legislation to oblige companies to give at least three months notice of any closure. Such measures would give time for intervention. The Parliament should be considering areas such as these to protect our citizens.

I will finish on this point although I have not used my full allocation of ten minutes. I was not expecting the other parties in the Dáil, who made such a fuss about the guillotine, to fail to use their full time. I will give time to other Deputies.

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