Mr. Tom Considine:

Deputy Spring is in a better position than I to know what the public wants. From where I sit, the bottom line has a number of different constituencies, including the State insisting - and rightly so - that the money it gave to the Bank of Ireland is remunerated at a significant rate of interest and that the Government gets back its money on the equity it holds, whenever it chooses. The State has a critical interest in ensuring the bank is sufficiently strong to support the development of the economy. Unless there is a banking system that can support and lend to the SME as well as the mortgage sectors, we will not have an economy.