Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I know the rules of the House and that was upheld by my good learned colleague from Tipperary last week in the High Court. This is what is going on. Given that Mr. X - we all know who he is - owed €500 million to IBRC in March 2012, why did that bank not ask him to pay down his debt by €50 million rather than giving him money to purchase Siteserv? It is a simple question. Given that Mr. X owed €500 million to IBRC, was IBRC not concerned that Mr. X was funding the purchase with yet more debt from other banks, making IBRC's lending position unsustainable? These are simple questions. What steps were taken by the board of IBRC to gain a full picture of Mr. X's Irish and international borrowings before the entry into the Siteserv deal? If the Acting Chairman, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, or I walked into the bank and we owed it €10,000 and wanted a loan of €4,000, we would hardly be asked the questions. There are two levels here, two different rules, given other IBRC customers were being put out of business for tiny bits and pieces.

All these accounts were based on the annual returns under the companies Act 2006, and we know where they are, that is, at Barclays Bank. What is more worrying is an internal e-mail that I have in my possession from two senior managers in IBRC, although I will not name them as the Chair has asked me not to. The content of the e-mail is strange:

You want to send me over your one non nama (if you did one for it) and I will lash them out later - have a quick read of [Mr. X] too - there will be fire works!!

This was internal. The Minister said he could not find them but they are all there. I have them here and I can hand them to him, and the documents to go with them. This is the fireworks that are going on now. The taxpayer is picking up the fireworks and they are scorched red raw from paying for this criminal activity, or what is bordering criminal activity, that went on in our banking system.

You cannot blame it all on the last Government. This is all on your watch and on the watch of the other Minister who only came into the House lately.

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