Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)

I will speak along similar lines to Deputy Maloney. We are all in agreement that what we are being asked to do is a pretty obnoxious deed. Nobody would pretend that what we are being asked to do is fair, right and just and would happen under any circumstances other than those in which we find ourselves today. I have heard much about septic tanks today but we are effectively talking about what was and still is in many people's minds a septic bank. When this period of history is written in 50 or 100 years, Anglo Irish Bank will be written all over it.

I know to my cost and that of the community which first politicised me in the Dublin docklands what Anglo Irish Bank was all about. There is a little school there where I worked and the Dublin Docklands Development Authority promised it a new building. Two members of Anglo Irish Bank were on the board of that authority. This was only three or four years ago but people should remember the magic dust that these people sprinkled on this country, which was incredible. One could not, in all seriousness, question anything that these big developers, builders and businessmen were doing. Everything seemed wonderful and they kept their businesses ramped up. The Glass Bottle Company site in Ringsend was identified as an ideal site and the authority became involved in a partnership with a third party development, funded by Anglo Irish Bank. Some €400 million was spent on the Glass Bottle Company site and it is now worth €34 million. The promissory note my school got for a new school building went up in dust, and for the foreseeable future it is condemned to an 1840s-era building.

Many people have been betrayed by the bank and the crazy attitudes surrounding it. It goes against everything I know to be just or right to stand in the Parliament like this and speak in favour of what we are doing. As Deputy Maloney has quite rightly said, I know we are effectively talking about putting a €30 billion promissory note process on the table in the hope that we win €1.25 billion, all the while understanding that we have €147 billion of ECB money in our banking system. I do not gamble.

See this speech in context