Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I am glad to speak on the Bill and the amendments put down by the Minister in regard to the Bretton Woods agreement. It is a difficult issue to speak on as it is not well known to the public, having been set up in 1944 and named after the place where the agreement was agreed and signed. It has more relevance today than we would like to believe, however, and is a serious issue in terms of the IMF and so on.

A previous speaker, Deputy Sean Fleming, was very hard on some of the views of the Technical Group. I do not know why, but he is right to say what he wants to say. He pointed out that it was not an evil. I do not think anybody described the IMF's arrival in Ireland as evil. Deputy Fleming went on to say at great length that he had raised this at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party at the time. Although I was excluded from it at that stage, I certainly did not hear anyone discussing it while I was there. It does not tally well with the statements that were made by two Ministers of the day, now retired, former Deputies Noel Dempsey and Dermot Ahern. When they were asked on a public platform about the IMF, they looked as if it was Santa Claus who was coming - they were in total disbelief. I do not know if it was different at parliamentary party meetings, but that is what the Deputy stated so I take him at his word because he is not a man who ever tells fibs. He is a serious politician and fairly responsible around financial issues as well, because he is qualified in that area also.

Deputy Durkan referred to the socialists in Fine Gael. I am glad to hear there are socialists in Fine Gael. The Acting Chairman shares a constituency with me, and we are all socialists in a way, but I do not know where they were when-----

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