No, that comment was by Mary Harney, leader of the Progressive Democrats at the time.  It speaks for itself that that party is now defunct having disbanded after achieving about 3% of the vote.

But yes, Fianna Fail were very closely associated with the building industry, developers, and a "light touch" approach to regulation particularly with regard to the Financial Services Centre which attracted somewhat dubious financial investments from all over the world.

My problem is that such a question would divert the interview into an entirely different "anglo-disease" type discussion, when the whole focus of the interview is supposed to be on the EP elections.

Obviously the consequences of such policies can be seen in the Irish economic collapse and Fianna Fail is being largely blamed for that collapse - hence its spectacular decline in its polls.

However neither I nor Dick are economic experts, so that interview is probably best conducted at another time by Jerome or Chris!

notes from no w here