Pressure on Taoiseach to correct Dáil record over 'banks were not bailed out' remarks

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said he made the comments 'in the heat of battle'.

The Taoiseach is under mounting pressure to correct the record of the Dáil over controversial remarks he made denying there had been a bank bailout.

Labour has joined Sinn Féin in calling on Micheál Martin to correct the Dáil record after he claimed Irish banks did not receive a bailout.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told the Dáil there was a bailout of the banks and claimed Mr Martin "misspoke" when answering questions this week.

Questioned by Solidarity-PBP TD Richard Boyd-Barrett, who claimed Mr Martin had "entered a winter wonderland fairy tale" when he made the remarks, Mr Varadkar said: "There was a bailout of the banks 12 years ago.

The Taoiseach misspoke. He did correct himself very quickly in fairness. What he meant to say was the banks' owners, the banks' shareholders were not bailed out." 

"Those who owned the banks and those who had shares in the banks lost all, or almost all, of their money. Some were very wealthy people; some were not. Some were just everyday people who bought bank shares as part of their pension. We need to bear that in mind."

In the #dail yesterday @michealMartintd said there was no bailout, @michaelMartintd begs to differ#throwbackthursday #tbt #nobailout pic.twitter.com/bDdxAl5Csq

— Richard Boyd Barrett (@RBoydBarrett) December 17, 2020

The Taoiseach says he "got it wrong" when he said Irish banks were not bailed out.

Micheál Martin said that his comments on the bank bailout were made in the "heat of the moment".

"I got it wrong yesterday in the Dáil to be upfront about that.

"I was angry, in terms of the manner in which the Debenhams workers were treated but also the sense or assertion the government is ignoring them and more concerned about the owners of banks or the shareholders of banks which we certainly are not, and we've done everything we possibly can within the law, to help Debenhams workers and that was the context."

However, Mr Martin did not say that he would correct the record of the Dáil saying the mistake was "the cut and thrust of politics - and that's where the matter lies".

On Wednesday, Mr Martin told the Dáil: "The banks were not bailed out. Shareholders in the banks were not bailed out" and instead "the State took equity".

"That is not a popular thing to say, but it is a fact."

Labour TD Brendan Howlin dubbed the comments “bizarre” adding that the Taoiseach “has to think of what he's saying. And, you know, you can't ever reinvent history.”

I mean, by any plain understanding of English, the Irish people bailed out the banks in 2008.”

Agreeing the record of the Dáil should be corrected, Mr Howlin said: "I mean, sometimes in the teeth of questioning you say things that you have to think again about.

“I think that episode was so painful and has been so painful over the subsequent decade for the Irish people. We have to be very truthful about it,” Mr Howlin told RTÉ’s Claire Byrne programme.

Calling on the Taoiseach to correct the Dáil record, Sinn Féin TD Maireád Farrell has said the bank bailout cost Irish taxpayers €66.8bn due to Fianna Fáil’s disastrous management of the economy.

Minister of State Niall Collins defended the Taoiseach's comments and accused Mr Boyd Barrett of putting forward a "stupid narrative" and said he was living in a "fantasy land".

He said "it's fine" for Mr Boyd Barrett to put forward certain narratives about the banks because "he doesn't have to worry about the economy".

Mr Collins said: "Micheál Martin was clearly responding to an insinuation by Richard Boyd Barrett that the owners or the shareholders of the banks were bailed out, and that didn't happen, that wasn't the case. Shareholders took a huge hit when the banks faced almost collapse, and indeed some of them collapsed," he told Newstalk Breakfast.