Michael McCarthy (Labour)

-----the bailout and recapitalisation, it has turned to socialism for bankers. We now have the disgusting situation where the chief executive of the Bank of Ireland gets a top-up of €1.5 million on his pension while a former director of Anglo Irish Bank gets a pension of €10,000 per week and free Aer Lingus flights to Puerto Banus, the most expensive part of the Costa del Sol. The banks have been getting away with blue murder and the Government has let them off the hook.

Will the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste ask Mr. Boucher to return the money forthwith? Will they also put in place measures to ensure this is not repeated? During the debates on bank recapitalisation, the Labour Party warned about this. At every point, however, the Government said it would get value for money, not saddle the taxpayers with debt and cap bankers' salaries. That clearly has not been the case.