THE BILL to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank was passed in the Dáil by 79 votes to 67 with the support of Independent TDs Jackie Healy-Rae and Finian McGrath.
Former Fianna Fáil TD Joe Behan opposed the legislation.
Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan said “the top brass in Anglo Irish Bank is guilty of national sabotage and financial treason because they have cost the State tens of billions of euro so far”.
He said “there has been a massive failure of government and legislation, and a breach of criminal law which has not been addressed”.
During a Committee Stage debate on a Labour amendment to appoint inspectors to investigate Anglo Irish Bank, Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter (Dublin South) said shareholders had been defrauded and there was a “separate and identifiable function for the Garda fraud squad” to investigate the bank.
He said Irish Nationwide Building Society should not be exempt from any investigation conducted.
“There are many people who invested in the Irish stock market and purchased reasonable, not huge, amounts of shares in Anglo Irish Bank. Many were retired and relied on the dividend.
“They assumed investing in Anglo Irish Bank was investing in a company which was as blue chip as any other bank until the recent disasters which have taken place. I believe such people have been defrauded of their money.”
Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said: “It is time to call a spade a spade. The actions we know of – and more may come to light following full investigation – were, without question, criminal.”
Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan said more legislation would be needed in banking to “bring confidence to our banking system”, including legislation “to strengthen corporate governance rules that our regulators can apply”.
Sinn Féin’s Arthur Morgan said the Bill was not “nationalisation in the public interest”.
“It is simply a bailout for the former patrons of the now defunct Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway races.”
The crisis was “created by the corrupt culture endemic in our financial system and encouraged by successive Fianna Fáil governments out of their love affair with greedy property developers”.
The “revelations about the hidden loans of Seán FitzPatrick and others have exposed the systemic fraud in Irish banking”.
“It has shown that senior bank managers and their auditors cannot be trusted, that our officials in the Financial Regulator are incompetent, and that the Government’s banking policy is an abysmal failure,” Mr Morgan said.