Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I will conclude with some general observations. The financial deficit is important. I am, as much as anybody else, a deficit hawk. We must establish our credit worthiness as a country. The Government should not underestimate the Labour Party's commitment and willingness to implement sound public finances and to meet agreed targets on time. However, this must be done in a planned way that avoids panic measures, thus worsening the situation.

Today's package involves €3.5 billion to €4 billion. The suggestion is that it involves €3.2 billion before the bank guarantee, which has not been costed, is taken into account. Last week, the Bank of Ireland received a cheque for €3.5 billion from the Irish State. It is amazing that the Minister for Finance gave €3.5 billion to the Bank of Ireland, the biggest cheque in the history of the Irish State, and that there exists no photograph of the Minister handing over that cheque. No photograph of the Minister holding up the cheque was provided for publication by all the newspapers and carried on the RTE news. We all know there are some Ministers who, it appears, have chequebooks in the back of their cars and who, when they turn up at community events, write cheques for up to €50,000 which are subsequently held up and photographed. There is no recorded photograph for posterity of that €3.5 billion cheque.

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