On 6 February 2013, the board of the IBRC was stood down by the Irish government and replaced by Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson of accountancy group
KPMG as Special Liquidators. Michael Noonan introduced emergency legislation to liquidate IBRC, and replace its promissory notes with bonds with an average maturity of 27 years.
Dáil Éireann began debating the legislation a few minutes after midnight on 7 February. Opposition politicians reacted with instant universal dismay and condemnation of the Fine Gael-
Labour coalition's actions and the driving through of legislation during the night. Independent
TD John Halligan deemed the legislation "madness", with
People Before Profit Alliance TD
Richard Boyd Barrett protesting "Only 2 hours 15 mins to read & vote with no details of broader deal in Europe"—both comments made on
Twitter. Independent TD
Shane Ross called the showdown a "humiliation" and expressed particular concern about Section 17 of the Bill, which awards wide-ranging powers to the finance minister, while his fellow Independent TD
Stephen Donnelly suggested it was "entirely plausible" that Section 17 is unconstitutional.
Socialist Party TD
Joe Higgins described the rapid developments as "chaotic". Finance Minister Noonan also made reference to the hundreds of people who were effectively sacked on live television; according to
Sinn Féin finance spokesperson
Pearse Doherty the workers found out from
Bloomberg Television that they had lost their jobs. ==Commission of investigation==