Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is very late. If there are people at home who may be watching this debate at this hour of the night, I, too, am concerned about the priorities of this Government and successive Governments and the lack of legislation around banking. It is the Wild West out there as far as the banking sector goes. They banks can do what they like, and have done what they like and got away with it. Other legislation that is badly needed has not been brought forward. A former of Minister of State, who was pushing for this legislation, is now working for the banks, as is another former Minister of State, Brian Hayes. There should be a moratorium and a space of at least five years between people leaving Government and becoming gamekeeper turned poacher or poacher turned gamekeeper. It is horrible. We are where we are. That says it all. If it was 1 April that would say something.

This morning the Taoiseach told the House that we did not bail out the banks. That is something I voted for and I have apologised for it so many times. It is the biggest mistake I made in my life. Now, we find we did not bail them out at all. It was just our imagination that we bailed them out. We are paying back €6 billion a year. I do not know why we are paying it back. It is very strange.

See this speech in context