Furious Cowen denies FF bailing out its friends

THE new “bad bank” was the subject of a heated row between Taoiseach Brian Cowen and opposition leaders in the Dáil.

Speaking before Finance Minister Brian Lenihan formally launched the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), both Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and his Labour counterpart Eamon Gilmore claimed the Government was bailing out banks and developers.

“What we are being asked to do is to give another blank cheque to Fianna Fáil to bail out the banks,” Mr Kenny said. He claimed the Government was lumping the “dodgy developers’ debts… on the backs of Irish taxpayers who were screwed down to the wall” in Tuesday’s budget.