Taoiseach Brian Cowen must make a statement to gardaí disclosing details of a March 2008 phone call with then Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick, according to Fine Gael justice spokesman Alan Shatter.
Mr Cowen has confirmed that when he was minister for finance he took the call from Mr FitzPatrick relating to Anglo's shares, the price of which was collapsing.
Mr Shatter this morning said he was not suggesting Mr Cowen had done anything wrong but insisted the investigation into Anglo could not be properly concluded until full details of the conversation were revealed.
"I'm calling on behalf of Fine Gael on Micheál Martin as leader of Fianna Fáil to publicly state whether he believes the gardai should discuss this matter with Brian Cowen, whether Brian Cowen should assist the gardai in their investigations, and what action he proposes to take to ensure that occurs," Mr Shatter said.
"I'm not suggesting that Brian Cowen has done anything criminal. I'm not smearing Brian Cowen. I'm simply saying the fact that he was minister for finance and the fact that he is now Taoiseach doesn't grant him immunity from assisting the gardaí with their enquiries."
Responding, Mr Martin said he did not think Mr Shatter's remarks merited comment.
Meanwhile, Mr Shatter was unveiling Fine Gael's policy on "rogue bankers" and "white collar" criminals, and outlining the party's plan to ensure the tagging of sex offenders and others who have committed serious crimes within 12 months of going into government.
He said Fine Gael was determined that anyone involved in financial transactions who had broken the law would be punished, and the party was concerned at how long such prosecutions took in Ireland. If US fraudster Bernie Madoff had lived in Ireland, it might have taken 20
years to prosecute him, Mr Shatter claimed.
"The sense that there are people who have played with millions if not billions of euros, who through greed and self-aggrandisement have brought this country to our knees, the sense that those people will never suffer any legal consequences is I think a source of huge concern to everyone to right across this country," he said.
"We want to give them an assurance that a Fine Gael-led government will put a stop to this."
Mr Shatter also said electronic tagging of sex offenders and other serious criminals should have been introduced many years ago. He said Fine Gael had long held the view that the tagging of sex offenders was the only way to monitor their movements. Fine Gael would introduce legislation to address the issue as a matter of urgency, he added.
