John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

In light of what has occurred this morning in respect of Anglo Irish Bank, it is time we asked the Leader for a debate on regulation. In many respects, it might be late to do so now, but the matter must be addressed at national, European and wider international levels.

The so-called Big Bang in London in the 1980s was not a question of deregulation, rather it was a question of no regulation. Captains Blackbeard and Kidd, the pirates of the Caribbean, were better regulated than some of the people who were mismanaging the world's economy and caused the cataclysm with which we are dealing. The Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and London's finance houses have visited trillions in toxic debts upon the world. Let us be clear in that whatever problems we have are minuscule compared with the damage wrought upon us.

I wish to comment on the Combat Poverty Agency. I would prefer to see smaller reports and money going to people who need it. Were reports able to solve poverty, we would have won the war a long time ago.