Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá 20 ceist agam agus ní bheidh seans ar chor ar bith ceisteanna breise a chur ar an Taoiseach inniu. Níl ciall ar bith ann leis seo. Táimid ag déanamh díospóireacht inniu maidir le ceisteanna a chur mé cúig mhí ó shin. There needs to be a review of how Questions to the Taoiseach is structured. This is not the first time this issue has been raised. I have 20 questions. Some of them concern events which occurred five months ago. Things have changed in the meantime and the questions are no longer topical or current. It is clear that I will not get through the 20 questions which I tabled. I also had supplementary questions to all of them. I would like to speak, if I can, and I will be brief as I can, on a number of the questions.

Of huge importance is the Taoiseach's acknowledgment for the first time, to my knowledge, in this Chamber that the issue of bank recapitalisation has not been raised by the Taoiseach or his Government. That is shocking news. If the Taoiseach recalls June 2012, it was claimed that a deal hammered out at an EU Council meeting would allow banks to be bailed out directly using the European Stability Mechanism. It was also claimed that the same measure could be applied retrospectively to this State. The then Tánaiste said on "Morning Ireland" that this news "changes the game for us as far as bank debt is concerned" and that the method of breaking that link can now be applied to Ireland. The Taoiseach described the decision as a "seismic shift" in European policy. I repeat, a seismic shift in European policy.

Almost three years later, there has been no retrospective bank recapitalisation. We know from correspondence received last August by Mr. Matt Carthy MEP from the managing director of the European Stability Mechanism that it was unlikely that the direct recapitalisation instrument would be used. Critically, he said that any decision would relate to the circumstances in the requesting ESM member, which does not even arise, as we have made no request. The issue has, therefore, not even been considered because to avail of this seismic shift and to avail of this game changer our Government would need to make the request. Today we are told that this has not happened.

We accuse the Taoiseach, at different times, of being compliant, rolling over and accepting the position. The citizens of this State, who make up less than 1% of the EU population, have been burdened with 43% of the cost of the European banking crisis. Citizens will be loaded for generations. When none of us is even a memory, people will still be paying back this legacy of bad decisions made by EU bodies, the previous Fianna Fáil led Government and the Taoiseach's Government. Is ceist shimplí atá agam. Is it not true that we have now got clarity from the Taoiseach that he never applied for a retrospective bank recapitalisation and that he never had any intention of doing so? This was all spin. This was all soundbites and an attempt to influence public opinion. Will the Taoiseach face up to that fact today and will he apologise, not least to his own electorate, the Labour Party electorate, the Fine Gael electorate and those people who voted for him, for misleading them on this matter?

I will rest it there but I would like to think I will get to speak on the other two questions which are of huge importance. These questions concern the Palestinian state and the dreadful plight of the refugees who are drowning daily in the Mediterranean Sea.

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