A Fine Gael TD has said he has reservations about a Government Bill going through the Dáil that provides for any future bailout of the banks.
Anthony Lawlor said bank auditors had failed the financial system and the public.
He said there were now only four internationally recognised firms of auditors and they had been auditing the four main banks here.
They could have reported on what was going on in the banks, or resigned in protest, but they had not.
Deputy Lawlor said that while he welcomed parts of the Central Bank and Credit Institutions Bill, he hoped there would be amendments made to it by the Government.
Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins told the Dáil that he opposes the Bill.
He asked why banks and other financial institutions were allowed have such power that they could wreak havoc on the economy and on society.
Deputy Higgins said one of the biggest banks, Goldman Sachs, had been described in the Rolling Stone magazine as like a vampire squid wrapped round the face of humanity.
Fianna Fáil's Timmy Dooley welcomed the Bill, saying the Government was dealing with the financial crisis in a similar way to the last government.
He said the Government was learning that it was not that easy to face down those opposed to burning the bondholders.
Children's Rights
The Government won a Dáil vote this evening on children's rights by 90 to 39.
The vote was on a Fianna Fáil motion calling for a referendum on adoption to be held on the same day as the Presidential election, allowing children of a marriage who are in long-term care to be adopted by their foster families after five years.
The Minsiter for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, told the Dáil yesterday evening that a wider referendum on childrens' rights would be held early next year.
During the debate, Independent TD Mick Wallace said he hoped the Government would not kick the can down the road with regard to the children's rights referendum for as long as the last government did.
Deputy Wallace reminded the House that when Alan Shatter was an opposition TD, he constantly harangued the then government about the importance of this referendum. Now that Mr Shatter is in power, it appears to be on the long finger, Deputy Wallace added.
Fine Gael Deputy Jerry Buttimer told the Dáil that the issues of adoption are much broader than those put forward in the Fianna Fáil motion.
He said that the consequences of political populism are too often seen in ill-thought out legislation.
Labour's Ciara Conway said Fianna Fáil failed to put the issues of adoption and children's rights before the people over the course of 14 years.
She said Fianna Fáil now had the cheek to come in and try to rush through one small element of a complex area.
