John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, to the House and congratulate him on his new appointment and the instant success he had in the early hours of the morning the other night with the deal with the social partners. Never was social partnership more needed than at present. We could do with some social partnership when it comes to dealing with the banks.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this issue. The collapse of Anglo Irish Bank is the worst and most expensive financial scandal ever to occur in Ireland. The dimensions of the disaster and the gravity of its consequences have no parallel in the history of the State. Not alone did hundreds of small, honest shareholders and investors lose their savings, the people must pay for generations to mop up the mess. The bill has arrived and we are paying it through higher taxes and cuts to pay and to health, education and welfare services. We will pay, as will our children and grandchildren. I will not dwell on the investments forgone, the health care denied or the education system that will be impoverished for three generations because of the bailout, because I do not want to incite a revolution. We might well ask how it happened, who caused it and who was responsible for fiddling while our new Rome burned.

We know who was Minister for Finance when Anglo Irish Bank was run in a manner that would have been considered reckless for a wild west casino in a gold strike town. However, that was then and this is now. When doubts were expressed by the Central Bank about the property bubble, the then Minister for Finance said: "Build enough and they will get cheaper". That was then and this is now. The then Minister for Finance is now the Taoiseach and his hand-picked successor in the Department of Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, must admit no mistakes, confess no fault nor own up to any responsibility, for that was then and this is now.

Anglo Irish Bank must be propped up, not because this is the best option for Ireland but because Fianna Fáil cannot own up to the mistakes made by the former Minister, Deputy Brian Cowen. Due to its reckless governing then and owing to it choosing the wrong option now, Fianna Fáil has sold three generations of people into debt slavery. Every man, woman and child owes €1,300 a year just to service the telephone figures of money Deputy Brian Lenihan is borrowing for the banks. The fact that almost 70% of that vast capital will go to a bank that does not lend, does not improve credit flow by one red cent, but which sits and stews in its own putrid mess, is both a national and international scandal. Time was when we might have heard the voice of the Green Party raised in opposition against such a scandal, but it has been even more cheaply bought than the banks. It was bought for an extra ministerial position and a prospective ban on hunting in rural Ireland. The cost of the mess is vast, mind-numbing sums of money no matter which option we choose. However, there are options.

If the Government cannot see there are alternatives to loading Mr. FitzPatrick's mistakes onto the people, it is wilfully and recklessly blind. There are none so blind as those who choose not to see. Fianna Fáil does not want to see what it has done or what it is doing. As Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen deliberately inflated a property bubble and sucked thousands of young men into unsustainable construction jobs. He made the Exchequer pay for hundreds of hotels, sucking many more thousands into unsustainable construction jobs and bankrupting our hotel industry. At a time that called for restraint and demanded prudence, he was an incendiary in a bush fire of speculation. Now, he and his hand-picked successor, Deputy Lenihan, are loading the debt that Fianna Fáil policy created onto the heads of Ireland's children

Anglo Irish Bank, like a septic boil, sits at the centre of that debt burden. That bank's collapse is due to appalling management, dodgy share dealings and barefaced cronyism. All these faults were encouraged, facilitated and aided by a Government lax in regulation, obsessed with property and living on the proceeds of a bubble. The relationship between those who should have regulated Anglo Irish Bank and the Anglo Irish bankers was too close, too involved and too indulgent. It was more interested in furthering the interests of Mr. FitzPatrick than protecting the interests of ordinary investors and the people.

Deputy Lenihan and Fianna Fáil may believe the Taoiseach is a sainted victim of circumstance, an innocent on the road to Jericho who fell among thieves, but I do not. I have some questions to put and would like answers to these questions in the Minister's response to the debate. Mr. FitzPatrick's reckless mismanagement and failures have brought us to the current mess and juncture. When did Deputy Cowen, as Minister for Finance, become aware of Mr. Seán Quinn's enormous contracts for difference exposure in Anglo Irish Bank shares? Did the shareholding of Mr. Seán Quinn or the Quinn Group in Anglo Irish Bank reach or exceed 30% at any stage during his purchases and the unwinding of his contracts for difference position? What effort did Deputy Cowen or his Department make to clarify the ownership of Anglo Irish Bank in the first three months of 2008, given that there were strong indications that the Quinn Group or Mr. Seán Quinn had built a considerable stake in the bank through a combination of contracts for difference and direct share purchase? When did Deputy Cowen become aware that the positions held by Mr. Seán Quinn on Anglo Irish Bank shares was untenable and needed to be unwound? Did Deputy Cowen, officials at the Department of Finance, the Financial Regulator or the Governor of the Central Bank express any concern to either Seán Quinn or Anglo Irish Bank management or board at the short selling of the bank's stock resulting from rumours about the size of Mr. Quinn's CFD position? When, and by whom, was approval - as is required by law - provided for Mr. Quinn or the Quinn Group to own 10% or more of Anglo Irish Bank? Did the then Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, discuss such approval with the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland or its Governor? If such approval was provided, why were the public and other shareholders not informed? If approval was not sought and given, then why was the law flouted? When did the then Minister for Finance become aware that the 25% stake that resulted from the unwinding of Mr. Quinn's position overhung the market and threatened the catastrophic slide in the share price of Anglo Irish Bank? What contact did the then Minister or officials from his Department have with the board of management of Anglo Irish Bank on the issue of this shareholding, and its implications for the bank, in March and April 2008?