Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

There is nothing new in what the Taoiseach announced compared to what we have heard already. Ireland is on the front page of major international newspapers again today for all the wrong reasons. The country is on the airwaves of our nearest neighbour again today for all the wrong reasons. Let us be clear that it is not because the bond markets, the EU or the international media have lost faith in Ireland. They have not. They have not lost faith in the Irish people. They have not lost faith in Irish resilience, ingenuity, energy or education. They have lost faith in a Government. They have lost faith in a Government that boasted about a bank bailout it said would be the cheapest of its kind. It has turned out to cost more than €50 billion, more money than this country drew from the social and cohesion funds since Ireland joined the EU.

To be clear for members of the Cabinet, this is not a crisis of liquidity for our banks, this is about their solvency. Liquidity was the argument used on the night of the bank guarantee to shoehorn Anglo Irish Bank into the guarantee, even though it was known by some that Anglo Irish Bank was trying to hawk itself to potential buyers in the week of the guarantee. That deception fooled people then; it will not wash today.

People have lost faith in a Government that, two years ago, brought in an emergency budget it said would stabilise the nation's finances. We are still waiting for that to happen. The world is now waiting for that to happen. They have lost faith in a Government that said it must cut €3 billion this year and, just two months later, has more than doubled that figure. They have lost faith in a Government that stood idly by as one of the world's greatest property bubbles swelled and burst.

The Government consistently turned a deaf ear to the calls from this side of the House and other quarters to reform the public service and put the citizens at the core of what Government does. Lastly, they have lost faith in a Government that does what all discredited regimes do in their dying days - use the courts to try to prevent the people exercising their right to vote. The international markets and the international community have not lost faith in Ireland. They have lost faith in the Government.

In particular, they have lost faith in the Government's policy on Anglo Irish Bank. Anglo Irish Bank was a disaster but it is not clear that this Government has learned the lessons. If media reports are to be believed, the Government seems intent on persisting with further bailouts of other institutions, this time with money borrowed from the EU and other European countries. For two years, the Government has talked about its bravery and courage in taking tough decisions and it has taken some. One of those supposedly tough decisions is that the taxpayer must bail out private investors in the banks to protect the State's credibility. This has proved to be a catastrophic error of judgment.

It is not the decisions that are tough or that require courage; it is the consequences of those decisions for every family in this country. Every family in this country now knows or is beginning to know a new poverty. Every family in this country now knows the new fear. What they need is competence in their Government, courage, clarity and consistency. This party can offer all four.

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