O'Toole defends Budget stance taken by Independent TDs

SEANAD:JOE O'TOOLE (Ind) defended the stance taken by Independent TDs over support for the Budget.

When Ministers vied with each other to direct lottery money to their constituencies or to get schools or decentralised offices provided, they were considered to be looking after their constituencies in a positive fashion. “When Independents try to do the same thing they are considered to be holding the country to ransom.”

The Oireachtas and the people had been seriously misled if the events leading up to the bank guarantee had been accurately described by Minister for the Environment John Gormley last weekend, Mr O’Toole said.

At the time, over two years ago, every member of the House and of the Dáil, with the exception of the Government it would appear, had been led to believe this had come upon Ministers when they met on the night before the legislation was introduced. The feeling was that the Government was under pressure. However, Mr Gormley had spoken in recent days of a prior Cabinet meeting “where they agreed on this”. The House was entitled to an explanation of the lead-up to the guarantee.

Dominic Hannigan (Lab) said Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan had “spun” at the time that there was a sudden crisis and that action was needed to save the banking system. “They approved the guarantee at a Cabinet meeting on the Sunday, and then, on that fateful Monday, they invented the crisis so that they could push their policy through.”

Dan Boyle (Greens) said the events of September 30th, 2008, had been immediate and in need of a response; they had not been “preceded with a decision”.

David Norris (Ind) said people were entitled to know the identities of the bondholders. Old people, those who had to switch off electricity or who had to live in squalor, fear and cold needed to know who they found themselves contributing money to. It was being unjustly taken from them by institutions that had gambled.