Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry. I meant to say he was like a playboy on the front page of Time magazine. The people suffering from austerity and the kites being flown are traumatised. The Taoiseach is doing his best at home, but he is not at his best abroad. He came back with a deal from the European Council in June which, again, was supported by the President of the European Parliament last week. However, it has been watered down and attacked by the French, German and Dutch finance Ministers. How dare they? If we had a deal, we had a deal. If we had a promise, we had a promise. It is time to assert ourselves, particularly when we take up the EU Presidency shortly. We must tell Ministers that we made a mistake when we voted for the bank guarantee but that it can be corrected.

Where are the people from the smoke-filled rooms who advised us to vote for the guarantee? Most of them have retired on big pensions or in other jobs, cushioned from its effects. Look at Mr. Cardiff - he was promoted to greener pastures in spite of opposition to his appointment and the fact that he was not fit for the job. It is a mess which has been allowed to develop by democratic governments. The system must be untangled, dismantled and brought back to basics. The people concerned need to realise they are not a special preserve, like the hare which must be preserved from being hunted down; they must be accountable.

That is all I have to say and all I want to say. It was the same with the pension levy. When the then Minister, the late Brian Lenihan, God rest him, brought in the pension levy, who escaped it? It was the senior public servants. I challenged him on it and he thanked me after I put down a motion in our party, because he was told there were only 112 or 113 affected but it turned out that 860 were affected. Why should they have got away with the pension levy when everyone else had to pay it? Why should this cohort of people with their hands around power and access to the Minister escape?

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