John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

——or the packages that were passed around like parcels until the music stopped when each bank in a row fell. Let us place it where it is. We now need to recognise the positive aspects. The financial sector employs 10,000 people. Some of the biggest and best recognised companies have a presence in this country. If we are to look positively to the future we first need to separate the rhetoric and take the best advice, as the Minister for Finance did when he took those initiatives in July. We are now faced with answering the question as to whether we have the bottle as parliamentarians to stand up and give leadership to the rest of the country in the context of them doing business for Ireland. That is what we should be focused on. I lead trade missions abroad with some of the best companies in the country, including some fledgling companies that are trying to make an impact on world markets. They are showing the bottle and are taking the risk. They are not speaking like the Opposition. They are in markets doing business, as we should recognise.

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