Michael McCarthy (Labour)

We now know the bank guarantee scheme was absolutely calamitous for the State. At the time it was put in place there were many economic, banking and financial views and opinions offered, but in the sea of information and technical language one view was excoriated and the person who expounded it was attacked relentlessly by the Minister for Finance and various members of the Government. He was Professor Morgan Kelly who suggested the cost of the Anglo Irish Bank bailout could amount to €15 billion. If only it was.

As we cart billions to the Anglo Irish Bank incinerator, we must be mindful of a number of commitments given at the time by the then Minister for Finance and now Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen. His first commitment was that Ireland would be the first country to come out of recession. That was an example of the triumph of vanity politics over reason and experience. No one has doubted the sincerity of or the effort made by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, but when it comes to political and economic judgment, it was absolutely hopeless. On 16 September 2007, following the Northern Rock debacle in the United Kingdom, the then Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, said the Government would not bail out banks from the consequences of their reckless lending. However, the figure is now running into unimaginable proportions and no one is in jail. A number of months ago in the House I referred ti the deaths of two people who were members of the criminal world in this city. All media organs reported that they had been known to the Garda, as if their lives had been worth less than the lives of others because of that involvement. However, people who were involved in the near collapse of the economy are known to the Garda but will probably never serve as much as one month in jail. It is absolutely unthinkable that they appeared before an Oireachtas committee in June 2008 and gave a commitment that the banks were sound and the balance books were good. Now we know the lies they told. Who will pay for this economic mess? Will it be pensioners, students and the unemployed? I fear it will not be Fingers and Seanie.