John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and reflect on some of the comments of members of the Opposition, who suggest we should have this debate without any commentary on what is happening elsewhere in the world. This debate is taking place one day after the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, and US Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, introduced a package to save the banks and the economy in the United States. I would never have thought we would have seen the US Government take over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and that there would be problems with Merrill Lynch and AIG. There has been such a movement in the world finances that those organisations are now in crisis. The Opposition must acknowledge that.

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