Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We must also ask about the knowledge of the other three members of the so-called Economic Management Council, the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, and the former Minister, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, of the nagging and profound public concerns about the scale of write-downs in IBRC, NAMA and other State financial institutions. Did they care and did the Minister for Finance care?

Thanks to the appalling decision of September 2008 taken by Fianna Fáil and supported by Fine Gael, Sinn Féin and many Independent Deputies, €35 billion of precious public money was sunk into the dead carcasses of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society. The totally discredited Rabbitte-Gilmore leadership of the Labour Party jumped on the same bandwagon in March 2011 and over seven years, the most vulnerable citizens in our society have been crucified with cutbacks and ever increasing charges and debts. Hopefully, the investigation now underway will shine a further bright light on all those responsible for these terrible failures and the suffering of our people.

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