Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

The ESRI has described the report that was launched by the Government yesterday as an interesting aspirational document that does not deal with the real issues. We have a very real issue on our hands today. The headlines in today's newspapers say it all. The main headline in The Irish Times is "Anglo Irish chairman quits over transfer of loans". The main story in today's Irish Independent, under the headline "Anglo chief quits after hiding €87m bank loans", states that "Analysts were shocked to learn last night that the true figure of directors' borrowings at present is actually €150m".

We are talking about trust in banking and trust in our economy. The challenge for the Minister is how he can possibly restore citizens' trust in banking. What action will he take to restore trust? Trust is gone given the information that has become available today. This is a most serious day for Irish banking. How can citizens reading this have any trust in banking here? How can the international community, which we will approach shortly looking for money, have any trust in our economy? This is a most serious challenge for the Government.

We need to answer these questions. How has the regulation gone so wrong? Why did no one know this had happened? When this House discussed the bank guarantee scheme, was this known by the Financial Regulator and not brought to the attention of the House by the Government? I reiterate what our party leader, Deputy Kenny, asked last night. Who knew about this? When did they know it? When was the Government informed? What action did it take? What will it do now? Many citizens will be worried about their car and health insurance because of the connection of the Quinn Group to Anglo Irish Bank. They will worry about what could happen. We in Fine Gael believe the board of Anglo Irish Bank should resign and the Government needs to take over the bank. We need action from the Government to restore trust and faith in Irish banking and the economy which has reached level zero after these revelations.

There is a complete failure of governance and regulation. How can we go ahead and lend more to this sector unless we put safeguards in place? We must clarify what the role of the directors will be. This cannot be allowed to go on. Corporate governance is at the heart of this. There has been a dismal failure. It is extraordinary to think that this has been going on for eight years. I want to know about the involvement of other banks to which this money was moved. Why was activity on this scale not picked up by those other banks? These are the most serious questions that have ever arisen on Irish banking governance and oversight. When this came to the regulator's attention, what was done? When did the Government find out and why were these Houses not informed about this most serious situation in Anglo Irish Bank?