Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

There is no question that we are living in sensational times. I will vote for the principle of the Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill to help ordinary people stay in work, to protect their savings and to ensure the economy recovers. I will not, however, be stampeded into voting for a Bill about which I, and the people, are not sure.

Several times today a certain question has been asked of the Minister for Finance. I will put it a different way. When the bankers crawled into the Minister's office on Monday night, what did they actually say to him? Did they say international bankers would no longer give them any more loans or that they had become insolvent and could no longer continue operating? There is a difference in the world between the two. The Minister has not yet made it clear to the House as to why the bankers were in his office on Monday night.

While we accept the Bill's principle, the Minister cannot expect us to be ecstatic about this scheme with its many restrictions on information. In the past few days the Minister spoke about the exposure of €400 billion. Last week, the US Congress debated a package of $700 billion for its financial sector. The US population stands at over 300 million people while Ireland's stands at 4 million. When one considers the difference between the two packages and population sizes, it appears Ireland has a much larger problem than America.

The Taoiseach claims there is no exposure for the taxpayer which I cannot understand. The Minister said on television recently that we can talk about regulation later on. In 30 years as a Member, I always regarded the Central Bank as a sacred cow that no Member or Minister could criticise. Any criticism was taboo. One would be considered a traitor undermining the confidence of the State if one made any derogatory statement made about the Central Bank or the Financial Regulator. However, much of the blame for the current situation must be placed on the Central Bank for the way it did business with the constituent banks. Who else could control a situation in which banks would vie with each other to give out more money in loans to people for houses that were overvalued by 300%? In what democracy would that be allowed to happen? The number of personal credit cards held by people in this country is a world record. Many people are in debt up to their ears.

In order to allow Members to be relatively certain that the taxpayer will have some say in the future of the guarantee, the Minister cannot stampede us into a situation similar to that of the establishment of the HSE. Members cannot even raise the matter of a medical card in the House because the HSE is considered by legislation to be an autonomous body. The banks are even more autonomous.

I agree with the Leas-Cheann Comhairle when he said we have been told in the past 20 years to have less of the Government's heavy hand in our lives.

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