Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

"Pleased" is the wrong word but I am satisfied to once again put Sinn Féin's position in opposition to the murder of David Black last week. I did so in the North immediately after we got news of his murder. As the Taoiseach will know, the Deputy First Minister set out in very graphic tones not just the Sinn Féin position, or his own position, but the position of the vast majority of people on this island. I join with the Taoiseach and Teachta Kelleher in once again extending our sympathy to, and solidarity with, the Black family.

I welcome today's announcement in regard to the go-ahead for the construction of the new national children's hospital. There will be questions to be asked as we get the detail, in particular about current services which are being starved of funding, but today I would like to deal with a really vexed issue, namely, the fact that senior bankers who were part of the financial crash in 2008 are still getting massive pensions. These banks were given big bailouts of the taxpayers' money to fund their operations. We learned that this money, taken from the taxpayers for a project, was used to fund the pension of former CEO, Eugene Sheehy, for example. He got more than €0.5 million. It is little wonder there is a disconnect between citizens, who are in deep distress, and the elites in our society and that there is a contempt for many politicians as well. Mr. Colm Doherty already got €3 million of a pay-off and he will get a pension of €300,000 when he reaches 65 years, all funded by the taxpayer.

We have the awful situation - one could not make this up - of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, echoing exactly what the Fianna Fáil Minister said that he can do nothing about the pay or the pensions of bankers. The Taoiseach promised something different and said no more blank cheques. He may have seen last week that one of these CEOs treated the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform with contempt. He stonewalled and refused to answer questions.

Again, this is a man who is paid over €830,000 per year and his bank has received €4 billion of taxpayers' money. What is the Taoiseach doing about this? Will he introduce a levy to recoup the payment of these super-pensions and ensure taxpayers' money is not used in this fraudulent way?

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