Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

With regard to the eurozone meeting I agree with the Taoiseach's description of the implications of the financial crisis for the real economy. I also agree with him that if we were reliant on our own currency, if we had the punt now, the situation in this domestic economy would be worse than Iceland. Is it not the case that, notwithstanding the Taoiseach holding that view, that in so far as there is a discernible pattern in the European response, we have been out of kilter with it, in terms of the route we have chosen? The Taoiseach made a half dozen references to the guarantee. Is it the case as reported in yesterday's Financial Times that he has exempted the two largest banks, Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland, from subscribing to the commitment in the guarantee that in the event of a default, the other banks, the covered institutions as they were referred to, would be called on to make up the default before the taxpayer would be hit? The Taoiseach told the House time and again during the debate that the sector, as he called it, would bail out a bank which defaulted in the circumstances that it is eminently feasible to envisage. Yesterday, the Financial Times reported the Government has exempted the two largest banks from that undertaking and that another large bank, the Ulster Bank, is not subscribing to the guarantee. In those circumstances, is the Irish taxpayer not entirely vulnerable and entirely exposed? Is the buffer the Taoiseach told us was there to protect the taxpayer, namely, that of the other banks being summoned and having to make their contribution to the bailout, no longer there, or is the Financial Times wrong?

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