In September 2004, Deputy Brian Cowen was appointed Minister for Finance. In accepting the seal of office as Minister for Finance, he undertook to defend the interests of the Irish taxpayer and to protect the stability of the Irish economy in so far as that was possible. Yesterday, we saw the culmination of the stewardship of the Taoiseach.

On 24 April 2008, a month before he became Taoiseach and in his capacity as Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen attended a private dinner organised by his good friend, Mr. Drury, along with Seán FitzPatrick and the board of Anglo Irish Bank at a restaurant in Dublin. At that stage, because the IMF report was on his desk indicating that the property situation in Ireland was about to burst, he knew, because he had extended the facility for loans in respect of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority site, that Mr. FitzPatrick and others were both on the board of the authority, as pointed out by Deputy Hogan, and on the board of Anglo Irish Bank. The Taoiseach also knew of the difficulties that a senior investor in Anglo Irish Bank, Mr. Seán Quinn, was having in respect of shares as the Taoiseach and the regulator had been informed of that.

All of this took place during the Taoiseach's tenure as Minister for Finance, when his duty was to defend the interests of the Irish taxpayer and to protect the stability of the Irish economy. It is the Taoiseach's view that Anglo Irish Bank was systemic to the Irish economy and he spoke to those bankers about the Irish economy. At the private dinner in 2008 with the board of Anglo Irish Bank, did the Taoiseach discuss these issues with the board and these bankers? Did he ask questions that a good Minister for Finance should ask in respect of what was a situation clearly beginning to spiral out of control, and which culminated yesterday in the Taoiseach and his Government imposing an extra debt of €50,000 on every family in the country which they did not ask for, did not cause and for which they are not responsible? It is the Taoiseach who is responsible.

I have noted that for the past while Deputy Kenny, and the Deputy beside him this morning in one of the newspapers, has been trying to personally smear me or suggest I am in some way responsible for the collapse in the banking system.

Deputy Cowen was the Minister.

He was only the Minister for Finance.

It is called responsibility.

He had the purse strings.

I want to make it clear to Deputy Kenny that I take full responsibility for all my decisions as Minister for Finance — that is the first point. I always did and always will defend the actions of Government in the past.

Even when they were wrong.

However, the position that is being suggested in regard to a long-standing dinner engagement with Anglo Irish Bank has no relevance at all to this situation.

Old friends are best.

He is like the brass monkey.

First, as Minister for Finance, I attended such meetings and dinners with other bankers down the years during my time. I want to make it clear that this has no relevance whatever to this situation.

The situation Deputy Kenny wants to raise concerning the challenge to liquidity in the banking system, which subsequently turned into a serious problem on 28 September, as we saw, was dealt with by me on the basis of the best possible advice available to me at all times. I reject the contention the Deputy continues to make. I take full responsibility for my decisions——

Good.

——and those of the Government. What we were seeking to contend with, as, indeed, was the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, was an issue regarding liquidity challenges in the Irish system. That was well known and well documented at the time. Therefore, I do not accept for one moment this idea that Brian Cowen is personally responsible for the collapse of the banking system in Ireland.

He is responsible for doing nothing about it. He stood idly by.

A Cheann Comhairle——

Deputy Durkan, please.

What has happened in regard to all of these matters is that we sought to deal with these situations on the basis of the best possible advice at the time and at all times. I do not accept the contentions made by Deputy Kenny and I treat them with contempt.

The Taoiseach is treating the Irish people with contempt as well.

That is the Taoiseach's problem.

That is precisely the Taoiseach's problem. He also treats the citizens of this country with contempt.

It is not that. It is the Deputy's tactics.

He will not listen.

He will not take advice.

He will not be taking advice from Deputy McCormack in any case.

The Taoiseach will not take any other proposition from any other quarter except his own. He comes to the House this morning having imposed a levy — an extra debt of €50,000 — on every family in the country through what he did yesterday. He said the meeting he had in his capacity as Minister for Finance had no relevance to this situation. That is the same thing his predecessor said when he addressed a meeting in Manchester as a citizen as distinct from being a Minister.

For heaven's sake.

Where is he now?

My charge is not against Brian Cowen, citizen. It is against the Taoiseach in his capacity as Minister for Finance. He attended a private dinner organised by a person who was then a member of the board of Anglo Irish Bank and was dealing with risk competition in the bank. He met those bankers and he knew there were difficulties in the property sector because of the IMF report on his desk. He knew of the dealings of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority because he extended borrowing facilities to them. He knew from the Financial Regulator of the difficulties with a senior investor in Anglo Irish Bank, Mr. Seán Quinn. Yet this function, one of many functions the Taoiseach attended, had no relevance to the Irish taxpayer or the Irish economy, whom the Taoiseach, in his capacity as Minister for Finance at the time, was expected to defend.

The situation with regard to Anglo Irish Bank is deteriorating on a continuing basis. The published element of the PriceWaterhouseCoopers report told us that the extent of liability was about €3 billion, then it became €6 billion. Yesterday, the Government injected €8.3 billion into the bank and we are told of a further €10 billion on top of that. To boot, the Minister for Finance has said that may not be all. The cost of dealing with what the Taoiseach considers is not just a systemic bank but one that is very close, guarded and protected by the Taoiseach and his party, is rising on a consistent basis——

A question, please Deputy.

The Taoiseach can treat this with contempt if he wishes——

I do.

That is the Taoiseach's nature.

It is not my nature; it is the truth.

He also treats the citizens of this country with contempt because he has levied their sons and their daughters for the next generation with a burden they did not cause and for which they were not responsible. In view of the lack of regulation and oversight by the Taoiseach when he was Minister for Finance and now as Taoiseach, he has caused this cataclysmic financial consequence for every person in this country. How does he defend protecting the interests of the Irish taxpayer and protecting the stability of the Irish economy in his time to date as Minister for Finance and as Taoiseach, when it is clear he oversaw this spiralling and out of control situation and when he has asked the taxpayer to take on the private debts organised and raised by Seán FitzPatrick and his crew?

The truth is bitter.

He looked the other way.

I will answer this statement by Deputy Kenny. When I became Minister for Finance in 2004, I made my first budget speech for the 2005 budget a couple of months later. I set up a tax strategy group and reviewed all the property reliefs, etc. I used independent consultants, Goodbody and others. The tax strategy group and all those papers are on the website——

Why did he not ask the man in the street?

I should be allowed to reply without interruption and not have to listen to some of Deputy McCormack's guff. He is the gurrier in chief when it comes to that sort of thing.

I will not have my integrity challenged here by Deputy Kenny or the guilt by association he is trying to impute. When I became Minister for Finance in 2004, I set up such a group. Those papers are in the public domain and they can be found on the website of the Department of Finance. They set out at that time how we were going to deal with a situation where we had to move from the dense tax structures relating to property developments. It is all laid out on the website how we might arrive at a soft landing position where growth of 4.5%——

People are trying to revise history. Right up to the general election of 2007, everyone held the same view of the future prospects of the Irish economy at that time.

It was not the same view as the Taoiseach's.

Let us get the facts clear. In autumn of 2007, we had a major problem with regard to liquidity in the international system. The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and everyone else including the Central Bank of Ireland, were working in the context of trying to ensure we could maintain liquidity in the system. This is all documented for anyone to see. By autumn 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed, there was a solvency crisis at that point because the whole banking system was broken. The investment banking model was broken. The regulatory system that applied then was no longer appropriate, as we have now seen from the response of every other jurisdiction. Almost every other country has had to recapitalise its banks. Every other country has been involved in having a state guarantee——

Not every other country.

The Taoiseach without interruption, please.

There is a debate being carried on in the country and in this House and particularly by Fine Gael, that seeks to suggest this is an issue which originated here, for which we are to blame and for which I am to blame.

I want to make a distinction and I will defend my position as Minister for Finance with anyone. I continue to take, as every Government should, full responsibility for its actions at all times but I am not going to take the revised version of history coming from Deputy Kenny who had an even looser fiscal policy framework to put to the Irish people when he sought this job at the last election.

We gave the Government an economy in surplus and they blew it.

When I was Minister for Finance I refused to take some of the options offered by Fine Gael such as the abolition of stamp duty in order to revive the property market. I was the person who refused to take all that advice from Fine Gael which it regarded as an opportunity to win middle class votes in the general election. Those are the facts and I will not take the revisionism that Deputy Kenny is coming up with and I will not take the attack on my personal integrity that is part of Deputy Kenny's whole strategy for dealing with this matter.

The Taoiseach is to blame.