Alan Kelly (Labour)

If our former colleague, Conor Cruise O'Brien, were still alive, he would justly say we are entering a second GUBU era. The current banking crisis is rolling on and on. People in banking circles are constantly telling us lies, in effect. It has to end now, in the interests of this House, the Oireachtas as a whole and the Government. If that does not happen, we might as well close the doors and give up. It cannot continue. As politicians, we have lost credibility, just as the markets have. In the current climate, who will invest in this country's banks? Internationally, it would be seen as a form of madness to do so. The Labour Party opposed the bank bail-out and the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank. We were right to do so. A month after the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank, we found out that the bank had received a loan of €7 billion from the Irish Life & Permanent group. We have now discovered that €300 million was made available to ten individuals, who cannot be named, as part of a "can't lose" bet. Why can they not be named? I do not believe the legal advice that they cannot be named. Of course they can be named. We need to know who they are. There has to be transparency if we are to be able to look the public in the eye. It is absolutely ridiculous to suggest they cannot be named.

The Financial Regulator has stated that it believed initially this was all above board. However, it changed its mind when new information on these matters emerged. The information in question related especially to the manner in which loans were provided to fund some of the unwinding of the Quinn transactions. In effect, the staff of the regulator are saying they were told lies. To say that new information emerged is a coded way of saying that the original information was false. The regulator now has to investigate the lies it was told. An investigation is required under the Companies Acts because the market was not treated fairly. Those who engaged in such downright thievery need to be subject to the full justice of the law. It is as simple as that. If we, as public representatives, are not seen to be providing the legislation to do that, we might as well close the doors and go home. It is as simple as that.

The Government needs to answer a numbers of questions, all of which I do not propose to repeat at this point.