The Taoiseach stated yesterday that he did not know the identity of the ten wealthy investors who constituted the golden circle in Anglo Irish Bank. Has he found out who the ten are since? When will he find out and when will he tell us? We must be told because the people own this bank and we are stuck with the €300 million they gambled recklessly. The golden circle must be named.

The Taoiseach made an interesting statement yesterday. He told us that he, the Department of Finance, when he was Minister, and the regulator became of aware of what he called the "overhang" of the Quinn interest in Anglo Irish Bank in March 2008 and that they concluded it was a source of instability in the bank. That overhang was assembled by the Quinn group using a method known as contracts for difference, an arrangement whereby the person does not buy the shares, he or she effectively gambles on them, buying an interest in whether they go up or down. Why would someone use contracts for difference to acquire an interest in a bank or other body rather than buying the shares? One reason is that contracts for difference have a different tax treatment from the purchase of shares. Stamp duty is payable on shares whereas contracts for difference are not liable for stamp duty.

The Revenue Commissioners rumbled this back in 2006. On St. Patrick's Day 2006, the Revenue Commissioners issued a compliance notice to the effect that contracts for difference would have to be subject to stamp duty. Within days, the Taoiseach, as Minister for Finance, caused the Revenue Commissioners to reverse that decision and to withdraw the compliance notice. He did so after being lobbied. We know he was lobbied because in reply to questions from Deputy Burton and Deputy Rabbitte shortly after that, he acknowledged that he was lobbied. The day after the compliance notice was withdrawn, the shares in Anglo Irish Bank increased by €0.30 and 3.7 million shares in Anglo Irish Bank were traded.

Will the Taoiseach tell the House who lobbied him in March 2006, causing him to direct the Revenue Commissioners to withdraw the compliance notice days after it had issued? This caused a situation to continue whereby trading in contracts for difference without tax liability continued, resulting in the overhang of Quinn shares in Anglo Irish Bank, among other things, which has now led to what the Taoiseach referred to yesterday as the instability in Anglo Irish Bank and all of the consequences that have flown with it, with the disastrous results for our banking system and economy.

It is unfortunate that in asking a question about 2006, Deputy Gilmore did not give me some prior notice. I cannot give him the accurate information immediately, but I will get it for him as soon as I can now that he has mentioned it here. If he had wanted an accurate answer to that, he could have put me on notice to it and I would certainly have provided it.

The Taoiseach was Minister for Finance at the time.

It was 2006 but I will get the information; I have no problem with that. I recall, however, that the decision on those matters also followed official advice.

The Taoiseach, as Minister for Finance, made the Revenue Commissioners withdraw the compliance notice.

Deputy Burton is not entitled to interfere in Leaders' Questions.

I am helping the Taoiseach in his recollection.

The Deputy is not entitled to interfere.

I will get the full explanation from the Department of Finance and will supply it to the Deputy in public in case there is any suggestion that I did something untoward or at someone's behest. I did nothing at anyone's behest; I did it on the basis of official advice on a matter which was having an effect on the trading of shares. That is my general recollection of 2006 but I will get the details and supply them. There is no mystery to this.

On the question of obtaining names, I have made the point — others can say differently if they wish — that the matter is currently being investigated by the Office of Corporate Enforcement and the regulator. It relates to a commercial deal done internally in a bank between the bank and its customers or investors. I do not have the details of that transaction. The independent statutory authority, acting independently, is dealing with that. If I went down to Fitzgibbon Street in the morning——

It did not act independently. It took Anglo Irish Bank's advice.

——and asked the sergeant in charge to give me the names of the suspects in crimes A, B or C which he or she was investigating, I would not be entitled to that either. It is in the interests of due process and of ensuring the objective everyone has is achieved, which is to see if there was any wrongdoing in regard to these matters and that if there was wrongdoing, those who did wrong will have to answer for it under the law without fear or favour. That is my only motivation in regard to this matter. I have no other motivation. While I will perhaps have to put up with the smear obviously going around as a result of it, I want to make it very clear that this Government holds no brief for any individual, that it expects everyone to be treated equally before the law——

That is a big change.

——and that we have confidence in those investigating the matter, in particular in regard to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, who has the statutory authority on the basis of that examination to appoint a High Court inspector and to proceed. If that is his requirement and he includes two members of the Garda from the fraud squad in his staff, he will proceed with that with the full support of Government. That is the situation.

I am not prepared to do what has been suggested to me because it may, in some way, put that at risk and not because I hold any brief for anybody or for who they are, what they are or who they eventually emerge to be. That is not my motivation. I have no interest in any of that.

I am simply trying to ensure the process of investigation is concluded as quickly as possible. I ask that it is concluded as quickly as possible and that the decisions which flow from it are proceeded with. We hold no brief for anyone. The law should affect everyone without fear or favour whatever way that turns.

In regard to the other matter, I am also very cognisant — this is something the Deputy and the Fine Gael Party will know from detailed briefings with the Minister for Finance — that we are in a situation where we want to maintain stability in our financial system and ensure our financial system remains stable. That is a very great challenge in the present circumstances.

I say to people who quite rightly, as I do, wish to see emphasis placed on proper oversight, proper supervision and proper outcomes to any wrongdoing that has taken place, let us please keep our eye on the big picture too, which is to ensure at the same time, and not at its expense, that our financial system continues to operate in a way that helps to serve the economy.

The Taoiseach said he will provide the information to me in regard to what happened in 2006. I remind him that the information I seek is the identity of those who lobbied him in 2006 to cause him within days to reverse the decision by the Revenue Commissioners to issue notices of compliance for contracts for difference.

My recollection is that it was a professional body but I will check it.

Let us see.

I have nothing to hide anyway.

I am not so sure that it is of such insignificance that it has entirely escaped the Taoiseach's mind because of what a commentator, whom I wish to quote, said at the time. John McManus, writing in the business opinion section in The Irish Times on 3 April 2006 days after the decision was made, stated:

The idea that the Minister for Finance should actually condone favourable tax treatment of this type of investment over plain vanilla share buying is hard to defend.

And the fact that between 20 and 50 per cent of the trades done in Dublin are done via CFDs should actually set the alarm bells ringing in Merrion Street. The Department should be asking themselves what will happen to all these leveraged investors when the inevitable down turn in the market comes.

That was very prescient because now we know what has happened to all those investors and to the banks now that the downturn has come. The overhang of Quinn shares in Anglo Irish Bank, which the Minister described yesterday as causing instability in the bank, brought about a situation where that bank ended up having to be nationalised, where our entire banking system has been put at risk, where repeated efforts have had to be made to restore confidence in it and where tens of thousands of people in our economy are losing their jobs as a result of a lack of credit being extended to them and as a result of what is happening in banking and the economy. That is the consequence of it.

That is what the Taoiseach was being warned about by this commentator in 2006. It was also what he was being warned about by Deputy Burton in 2006 when she raised this very issue with him. The Taoiseach this morning and Ministers put on media over the past few days are trying to spin the line that something untoward was going on in the banks, that they discovered it only lately, that they are trying to sort it out and that this is the Government acting tough with the banks. The fact of the matter is that the Taoiseach's stewardship, as Minister for Finance, has contributed to the hole we are now in economically. The Taoiseach was at the heart of it.

The Revenue Commissioners decided these things should be taxed. Up to 40% or 50% of transactions were being done in this way. It was a form of gambling. These people were taking risks and gambling with the economy and shares. Why would they not do so? They did not have to pay tax on it. No stamp duty was being imposed. If they had to buy the shares, they would have had to pay the stamp duty. The Revenue Commissioners said they should have done so but the Taoiseach responded to lobbying from somewhere about which he has yet to tell us which reversed the Revenue Commissioners' decision and they carried on partying, as Charlie McCreevy would say. Now we know the result. The banks and the economy are in trouble and the Taoiseach was the Minister for Finance charged with the stewardship of this. At the very least, he was unwise in the decisions he made and, at worst, he was not doing his job.

The reason Anglo Irish Bank got into difficulty is that the business model it had required obtaining borrowings——

Answer the question asked .

The Deputy's leader has had a chance to speak for ten minutes.

Answer the question asked.

If the Deputy does not mind me saying a few words——

The Taoiseach must be allowed to answer.

I am entitled to answer and to defend myself.

The Taoiseach must be allowed to answer.

The suggestion that we have a financial crisis in Ireland because of the CFD position is really stretching things.

We have one in Anglo Irish Bank.

Let me answer.

Deputy Burton has no involvement in this.

The market was betting against Anglo Irish Bank.

The leader of Deputy Sherlock's party is capable of asking questions. He does not have to help.

I wish he would ask a question.

In regard to what happened in Anglo Irish Bank, the problem was that the international credit crunch brought about a situation where its business model came under immediate pressure and the market made a decision on that. Its perceived exposure on the construction side was regarded as another negative but the idea that it was just in regard to the CFD issue is stretching things considerably.

I said that the acquiring of a shareholding by Mr. Quinn through the CFD mechanism was causing concern and was referred to me by the Governor in his normal meetings with me as Minister for Finance, which are conducted on a regular basis, and was unwound through 15% of shares being converted to shares for Mr. Quinn and his family. The other 10% then arose in regard to this other arrangement which is now under investigation by the regulator.

That source of instability was dealt with in July but, unfortunately, what we are now finding out is that the nature of the transaction in regard to the shareholding made up of the investors which was referred to the regulator has now been referred to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement. It has to be dealt with to see whether it was a commercial loan conducted in the ordinary course of business. There are indications that perhaps that may not be the case. That issue has to be resolved by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

However, to make the leap the Deputy just made that the CFD issue has caused all this problem in the banking system is totally exaggerating the case.

In Anglo Irish Bank——

The source of instability which that created was being resolved. Deputy Kenny has suggested that the ultimate amount involved could be of the order of €300 million, but the problems in Anglo Irish Bank were far greater than that. While it is a very large figure, in the context of overall banking stability it will not have the impact suggested by the Deputy. It would be better for us to keep things in perspective. The issue here was——

It would be better if the Taoiseach answered the question.

I have answered the question. The contention of Deputy Gilmore was that the CFD position of itself has brought about a situation——

He made that contention very clearly and the record will show what he had to say.

The Taoiseach should account for his stewardship.

I did not interrupt when he was making his comments.

The Taoiseach, without interruption.

The CFD position is not the reason we have a financial crisis in Ireland and if that is the contention, it is wrong.

It was a major factor.

The truth is that was not the situation.

Did it help the situation?

Of course it did not help the situation, but that source of instability was dealt with in July and August through the mechanism we have just been discussing. However, the problem now is that an aspect of the nature of that transaction is under investigation. Those are the facts with regard to the CFD position and the unwinding of the shareholding by Quinn in that bank with regard to that matter. It is an exaggeration to associate with us and CFDs the rest of the problems of the economy, including the international recession and the depreciation in sterling.