What TDs said in the Dáil overnight

The Dáil passed all stages of emergency legislation to liquidate the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation last night, by 113 votes to 35.

Fianna Fáil and Independent TD Michael Lowry supported the Government in the final vote, which concluded at 2.55am.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan told the Dáil the Government was trying to protect the Irish taxpayer and recover some of the ground lost.

Winding up the almost three hours of debate on the Bill, the Minister said they wanted to get the best price possible for the Irish taxpayer.

He said the Government had to take action because they were not in a position to deny the Government was planning to liquidate IBRC and the legislation had been prepared some months ago.

The purpose of the Bill was to put a special liquidator into IBRC so that potentially €14 billion of Irish taxpayers assets were protected, he said.

The liquidator had already taken over premises in Dublin, London and New York and had secured them with security staff. He said they could not give notice of a liquidation or not deny a liquidation and then stand back from it without taking action.

Earlier Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil the lifetime costs including interest of Ireland’s bank debt promissory notes would have hit almost €48 billion.

Mr Kenny said it would have been an enormous burden but the Government was committed to replacing the promissory notes with a new cheaper, longer-term instrument that would ease the burden on the Irish taxpayer.

Speaking in the early hours of this morning on the emergency Bill, Mr Kenny told the Dáil a key element of the restructuring of the promissory notes was the liquidation of the IBRC, the wind-down vehicle of the former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide.

“The Bill is a first step in a final comprehensive restructuring of the heavy obligations placed on the taxpayer from the bailout of these financial institutions,” he said.

The liquidation was necessary to secure the billions worth of assets ultimately owned by the taxpayer, the Taoiseach said.

“The disappearance of the former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide from our social and political landscape is long overdue,” he said. “They were emblems of a culture of cronyism that undermined confidence in our economy and political system.”

“They became a stain upon our international reputation and a dent to our national pride,” Mr Kenny added.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said the recklessness and greed of a tiny clique had brought the country to the edge of financial ruin.

“These banks, the people who ran them, and the golden circle around them, were the very roots of the crisis which has caused so much distress to the Irish people,” he added.

“In liquidating this institution, we are doing what should have been done on the night of the blanket bank guarantee.”

Mr Gilmore said the current Government was ending Anglo Irish Bank, not scrambling to keep it alive.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin paid tribute to the Minister for Finance for giving a matter-of-fact speech, while he believed the Taoiseach and Tánaiste had been highly political.

“I do not believe Mr Noonan would misrepresent the facts on such a serious issue,” he said, adding that he accepted the Minister’s integrity in the debate.