Ba mhaith liom beannachtaí a rá ar son Pháirtí Shinn Féin agus Nollaig mhaith a ghuí leis an Taoiseach féin agus leis na Teachtaí Dála agus leis na Seanadóirí agus le foireann iomlán Thithe an Oireachtais a thug cúram maith dúinn i rith na bliana agus leis na meáin fosta agus d'achan duine atá ag obair sa Teach seo. Tá súil agam go mbeidh Nollaig mhaith acu uilig agus bliain úr faoi mhaise agus go mbeimid uilig ar ais anseo, slán, sábháilte in 2019.

A Cheann Comhairle, ba mhaith liom an cheist seo a ardú inniu leis an Taoiseach. Yesterday, the liquidators of IBRC, the successor to Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide, confirmed that unsecured and unguaranteed junior bondholders at Anglo Irish Bank who gambled during the banking collapse will be paid in full a sum of €270 million in the coming weeks. The payment of hundreds of millions of euro of taxpayers' money is a betrayal of the Irish people who bailed out Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide to the tune of €35 billion. This issue was first raised in 2015. A line should have been drawn at that stage but it was not. We were assured by the former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, that it would not happen. The former Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, told us it would not happen, as did the then Tánaiste, Deputy Joan Burton. At the time, the current Taoiseach also said it would not happen. Lo and behold, three years later, we all know that these unguaranteed and unsecured junior bondholders are to be paid in full. It is an early Christmas present for the bondholders while the rest of us are left picking up a tab of €30 billion for a bank that should never have been bailed out in the first place.

The former Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Patrick Honohan, argued strenuously against paying these bondholders. In 2015, he told officials of the Department of Finance that there was a moral case for making sure that any money recovered from the liquidation of IBRC was returned to the taxpayer and not to junior bondholders. In one of his emails to the Department in March 2015, he stated: "The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that the State should take further steps to ensure that unexpectedly strong asset disposals by the IBRC liquidator return to the State and not to subordinated debt holders". Instead, under the Taoiseach's watch, bondholders are in line for a bumper payout. This is scandalous stuff but hardly surprising given his track record.

A fortnight ago, a senior banker at Irish Nationwide, who was responsible for all commercial lending originating in this State, was given a minimal penalty for reckless lending. When pressed, the Taoiseach refused to back our call to make reckless lending a crime, despite it being a criminal offence in the UK and despite the Central Bank's support for our call for it to be made a crime. The ongoing prioritisation of the banks, bankers and vulture funds continues under the Taoiseach's watch while mortgage holders and taxpayers are left picking up the bill.

We should not forget that the architects of all of this were Fianna Fáil and the bankers at that time. This is a figure of €270 million being paid to unguaranteed and unsecured junior bondholders who gambled on a bust bank and cannot believe their luck with this Government. What steps will the Taoiseach take to make sure he delivers on his promise in 2015 that these bondholders would not be paid or will it be more of roll-over Leo?

Never mind roll-over Leo, I am starting to wonder where Mary Lou is these days.

She is in Palestine.

That clearly indicates the priorities of Sinn Féin during the busiest and most important week of a Dáil session. To answer the question, the special liquidators of IBRC announced yesterday that they will shortly commence the payment of the final dividend of 50% to admitted unsecured creditors of IBRC. This payment represents the final instalment of amounts owed to this class of creditors of which the State - the Irish Government and the Irish people - will be the single largest beneficiary. As a result of this transaction and this liquidation, the State is now in line to receive €600 million in the coming weeks. This is €600 million out of the liquidation of IBRC that we - the State and Irish people - never thought we would see again.

The joint special liquidators of IBRC also confirmed yesterday that it is their expectation that further funds will be available for return to the State following the expected repayment of other creditors, including subordinated bondholders. The joint special liquidators have given no timeframe regarding the commencement of any payments to subordinated bondholders who are owed €267 million, which is less than half of what the State will get. The outcome of the liquidation has far exceeded expectations at the time of the liquidation in 2013. Not only has the State recovered the full amount in guaranteed payments incurred as part of the transaction, we now stand to receive further funds in the coming years.

Despite extensive liability management exercises, LMEs, undertaken by IBRC in 2010 and 2011, which significantly reduced the cost of the bailout to the State by €4 billion, approximately €267 million of subordinated debt remained in the bank when it was liquidated in February 2013. This debt remained in situ following LMEs due to legal issues impacting the success of those exercises. Under the rule of priority, the distribution of assets under the Companies Acts, these creditors are now entitled to repayment as the next class of creditor in the liquidation. The Department of Finance has received legal advice that indicates that any move to change the priority of distribution would be open to successful legal challenge.

It is a case of more roll-over Leo. The promise given by the Taoiseach, the previous Taoiseach and the then Minister for Finance is now gone. We knew about the legal challenge but even after these junior bondholders went to the courts, the argument was made by the then Governor of the Central Bank that this was a legal battle that was worth having. He impressed on the Department that it enlist debt restructuring lawyers to take on these bondholders.

The Government has no problem with the State taking on victims of cervical cancer, those whose cancer diagnoses were missed in County Kerry, or those who are going to the State to ensure their children will have an assessment of needs and the courts to ensure their children can fulfil their full potential, yet unsecured bondholders who were not guaranteed are being paid in full under the Taoiseach's watch. The taxpayer has been left with a debt of €33 billion. That is the cost of the disastrous policies of Anglo Irish Bank and the Irish Nationwide Building Society which was captured by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Is the Taoiseach going to do anything about this? Are his promises to the people in 2015 not worth the paper on which they were written? He needs to take a legal challenge and the bondholders can fight it in the courts, if they so wish, but the people are sick and tired of the Government continually rolling over when it comes to bankers, bondholders and vulture funds.

It is important to recall what happened. Anglo Irish Bank was a bad bank that went bust and caused enormous damage to the country. It was bailed out by a previous Government of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party to the tune of €30 billion and we will not see very much of that money ever again. The Fine Gael-Labour Party Government that replaced that Government adopted a different approach. It liquidated the bank which was at the time called the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation because the Irish Nationwide Building Society had been merged with Anglo Irish Bank. We pursued the different policy of liquidation. A pot of money is usually left after a company is liquidated that has to be distributed and the Revenue Commissioners, workers and secured creditors receive preference. It all goes down the line. In this liquidation, however, it turned out that a lot more money was left over than people had expected. As a consequence, a relatively small number of junior bondholders will receive about €260 million back. The people and the State will receive back more than twice that amount, or €600 million. That is welcome and positive.

The State should get all of it back.