THE FINE Gael leader demanded that the Taoiseach apologise to the Irish people for the state of the economy.

Enda Kenny said that Brian Cowen had stated, on more than one occasion, that he accepted responsibility for all his actions in politics.

The Government, said Mr Kenny, had crushed the spirit of many people.

“On this first day back in this Dáil, are you prepared to apologise for your actions to the Irish people . . . which have placed an unprecedented economic burden upon their shoulders and that of the next generation?’’

Mr Kenny said that, two years ago, Mr Cowen and Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan had sat in Government Buildings and colluded with bankers to introduce a policy for a bank bailout which had proven to be “the most catastrophic’’ in the State’s history.

There were now 455,000 people on the Live Register, a deficit of €20 billion, €3 billion or more, due in budget cuts, and an €87 billion national debt, said Mr Kenny.

A total of 200,000 people had lost their jobs in the past two years, while 2,500 people were having their electricity supplies cut off every month, he added.

Emigrants were again on foreign shores, while 200,000 people, most of whom had lost their jobs, were in negative equity.

Mr Cowen said the guiding principles, which the Government had always adopted in its interventions from the State guarantee onwards, was to provide a financial system which would serve industry, businesses and households and safeguard the lifeblood of the economy.

It was terribly unfortunate, he added, that Mr Kenny continued to portray the Government’s motivation as being anything other than that.

He appealed to the House to “stop peddling the myth that the guarantee was a misguided intervention’’.

The Government, he added, was in the process of restructuring the banking system.

Mr Kenny described the Taoiseach’s reply as another example of “Fianna Fáil never apologising’’.

He said Mr Cowen knew in advance of the guarantee that Anglo Irish Bank was insolvent. “Yet, you went ahead and made your decision for a blanket guarantee . . . You misled the public.’’

Mr Kenny said the unfinished Anglo Irish Bank building stood as “an iconic failure to a cancer in Irish economics, down in the docks’’.

He challenged the Taoiseach to say if the announcement of the amount required for Anglo Irish Bank would be the last time the Government would look for Irish taxpayers’ money to get it and other banks off the backs of the Irish taxpayer.

Mr Cowen accused Mr Kenny of failing to have a policy on the issue, adding there was objective evidence to confirm the bank guarantee was the right decision.

The Financial Regulator was the person with the statutory authority and duty on the issue, and he would come forward with a figure he believed, to the best of his ability, related to the bank’s overall position.

“And that would be reported on that basis.’’