Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

The problem is that circumstances have become worse in those two years. Anglo Irish Bank requires up to €34 billion, certainly €30 billion. AIB now requires €10.4 billion. An extra €3 billion has been put into AIB today, which is the equivalent of the minimum amount of cuts to be made in the forthcoming budget. There is a disconnect between the Government and the public and this is having major implications. The Government procrastinated over Anglo Irish Bank, which was clearly insolvent. The Minister made reference to our proposal for a good bank-bad bank model. The greatest difference under our proposal is that toxic loans would not have been valued. NAMA, which we opposed at the outset, has had an impact in terms of the sentiment of international markets.

See this speech in context