Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reason there was a decision made at that point to focus in on the profitability of the banks is because at that point in time the scale of losses at the banks posed an existential threat to the Irish economy. If a pathway to profitability was not identified and the pathway embarked on, the long-term consequences for the economy would have been profoundly negative. It is not just the long-term consequences, the short-term consequences when our banks were unprofitable and unable to fund themselves did huge damage to our economy and changed the nature of our country. As such, there was a focus on trying to get the banks back to profitability but I reject entirely the view that the Government between 2008 and 2011 or the last Government played a role as shareholders in creating the issue we are dealing with now.