Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Although I can understand the Government playing that game, if we were to look at the cast of characters involved in this particular deal and compare it to the way things were strung together when Fine Gael was last in government - circumstances which led to a particular finding from a tribunal - it would be a convincing view that the real golden circle, the real axis of evil, existed when Fine Gael was in office and is emerging again now that it is back in office. I am not going to add to that but it should set the context for establishing a fully transparent and independent investigation.

The Minister should look at the way in which people were treated; €105 million is a hell of a lot of money and €5 million to the directors of a burst company is a phenomenal amount. Yesterday I was in the home of a family that has been evicted by a bank. They owed €140,000 and were thrown out in January and are living in rented accommodation. They got nothing when they were pushed out the door. The State will not even give them rent allowance because they have to be renting for six months to qualify for it. The Minister should try to convince the woman of that family that she is being treated fairly and equitably by the State.

We have a burst company that gets a debt haircut of €105 million and the shareholders walk away with €5 million. Deputy Fleming has talked about the transactions that happened in the days preceding the final deal, which will be dealt with through some form of investigation later, if not now. The special liquidator will come back in due course and say he does not have the powers to address all of this. What about the other companies that have had their loans sold by IBRC and did not get that exclusion from hawking their books around between their competitors? There are many small to medium enterprises that were funded through Anglo and, by virtue of the Minister's decision to liquidate IBRC, found their loans being offered to their competitors. They did not get the kind of protection this company got.

I ask the Minister to help me explain to that housewife the notion that he is dealing with this fairly and equitably. He should help me explain it to the small to medium-sized enterprises that have had their books opened to their competitors in an effort to sell on their loans. Some of the Minister's colleagues have indicated that receivership would have damaged the value of Siteserv. Why was its loan book not traded and offered around like others?

Will the Minister help me explain to a very annoyed public how somebody who apparently represented IBRC and by extension the Government could go on "Prime Time" and say that votes had to be bought and that is the reason €5 million needed to be ponied up? What was the rush to get this deal executed? I do not understand it and I sure as hell know that there are very few people outside the doors of this House who understand it. I remind the Minister that senior officials in his own Department certainly do not understand it. At the end of tonight's debate, I ask the Minister to accept that there is a problem here, perhaps not of his making, and to put in place an appropriate independent investigation that will give some sense of credibility to what we are all trying to do in this House.

See this speech in context