Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will summarise tonight's Private Members' motion. The Fianna Fáil motion states that there are questions about how IBRC handled the sale of Siteserv and other sell-offs. Fianna Fáil failed to mention that the sale of Siteserv was carried out under a relationship framework which its Government introduced and set up. Fianna Fáil is saying that the framework it set up for how IBRC and the Department of Finance would engage was, in some way, deficient. The Fianna Fáil motion relates to a breakdown of trust between Department officials and those on the board of IBRC. Surely a decent framework agreement, if properly established, would transcend any personalities involved.

The summary of the Government counter-motion is that the Department had no role in the sale of Siteserv under the old Fianna Fáil framework. This Government introduced a new, more robust framework to replace that of the previous Government. Given the public concerns, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, has directed the special liquidators of IBRC to review all transactions, activities and management decisions which occurred from nationalisation to liquidation, to be monitored by retired High Court judge, Mr. Justice O'Neill, in case of any actual or perceived conflicts of interest.

In the context of this debate, it is important to remember that the previous Fianna Fáil Government pumped €34 billion of taxpayers' money into Anglo Irish Bank which we, the taxpayers, will never see again.

This is the Fianna Fáil Government whose then leader and Taoiseach in 2008 played golf alongside FitzPatrick, the head of Anglo Irish Bank, when rumours of the bank's demise were circulating. He apparently never asked, "How's business, how are things going?" When word of this golf game became known, there was a suggestion that perhaps the then Taoiseach was aware of the situation but he stuck his head in the sand. However, it seems it was a far greater thing for us to be assured that the Taoiseach never asked that question when concerns were rife.

What would Fine Gael have done if it had been in power on the night of the bank guarantee? As a public representative, I would have hated to have been in that room and having to make any decisions with a gun to the head, as was the case, which would have such implications for the future of the country. However, I am damn sure that if Fine Gael had been in power then that night would have never come because we would not have had our heads in the sand like the previous Administration. The period of light touch regulation and lazy governance cost this country's citizens a huge amount and much more than just in monetary terms. We have since seen the prudent management of our State's finances by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister, Deputy Howlin, helped in no small way by the perseverance of the public. Already this Government has succeeded in reducing the interest rate on the European loans provided under the bailout programme. It has secured an agreement to extend the maturity of European loans, replacing the promissory notes with long-dated government bonds and replacing over €18 billion of IMF loans with cheaper market-based funding.

This Government reduced borrowing requirements by €50 billion over a decade, including €10 billion in cash savings. IBRC, the wind-down vehicle of Anglo Irish Bank and the Irish Nationwide Building Society, was liquidated as part of the deal to restructure the onerous promissory notes. We do not hear talk of promissory notes any more because they have been taken out of the vocabulary. We inherited those promissory notes from the previous Government. Restructuring led to stabilisation of public finances and a clean exit from the bailout without a precautionary credit line.

Those in Fianna Fáil have some neck to criticise one of the many messes they left this Government to clean up under their framework structure. The public can rest assured and can have full confidence in this Government when it comes to handling matters of a financial nature where the State is concerned. Our track record in restoring the public finances in the past four years is proof of that.

If Fianna Fáil did one good thing in the past it was the appointment of a man of integrity and a fantastic track record of service to this State to oversee IBRC and the wind-down of the bank. I have no doubt that Alan Dukes and the board of IBRC carried out their fiduciary duties with great integrity and I expect there to be nothing to see in this matter.

Fianna Fáil wants a full inquiry that would take years and cost the taxpayer far more. This Fine Gael Government has basically offered a quick investigation that will report by August. We know how much previous inquiries initiated by previous Fianna Fáil Governments have cost and how long they have gone on for. The one thing we know from this motion is that if Fianna Fáil got back into power we could expect more of the same in future.

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