Michael McCarthy (Labour)

The weekend's revelations on the involvement of the then Minister for Finance and present Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, with Mr. Seánie FitzPatrick are quite disturbing. This was a time when there were many significantly unfortunate developments, not least the collapse in the share price of Anglo Irish Bank on St. Patrick's Day in 2008 that now is known as the St. Patrick's Day massacre. However, the Taoiseach never made available to the public domain his contacts with Mr. Seánie FitzPatrick or the fact that he spent an entire day in the latter's company at a very turbulent time for the bank. As the extent to which Anglo Irish Bank has all but collapsed our economy and has almost collapsed the entire European currency is now known, it is very serious that the Taoiseach withheld such vital information regarding meetings, telephone calls or both. What is he hiding?