Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

It is a very positive thing. Tallaght is a lovely place. I cannot wax as eloquently as Deputy O'Connor about it but it is a lovely place.

This morning's announcement by the Minister of the complex set of arrangements he has made to further acknowledge the level of the crisis that has convulsed the Irish banking system has probably introduced levels of fear and trepidation among ordinary people. The blanket bailout of the banks two years ago, which the Government called "the cheapest bailout in the world", has turned into a disaster of historic proportions. The Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan stands before us today, having brought us news of the largest bank bailout, proportionate to the nation's wealth, of any country in the world. One would probably have to go back to 19th century South America to find failures and commitments on such a spectacular scale.

Yesterday, there were tense exchanges between Opposition leaders and the Taoiseach as to why the extended liabilities guarantee was going through last night without the information being provided to the House as to what - and I put the question specifically when I spoke last night and others did as well - would be the further commitments to Anglo Irish and what would be the further commitments to Irish Nationwide and Allied Irish Bank. The response of the Taoiseach, who is the Prime Minister of our country, was that on the eve of today's momentous announcement he did not know. That seems an odd way to run a Government. One of the strange things about Ireland is that over the two years of this crisis the governance of Ireland, by this Government and the people who assist it, has failed the Irish people to a very significant extent.

Last night and this morning, however, the Financial Times devoted two pages to an interview, given in the daytime yesterday by the Minister for Finance, in which he set out all of the figures in quite considerable detail. What is the significance of this?

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