Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

In a policy statement, Fine Gael called for an examination of creative alternatives to recapitalisation which, it argued, might offer a better chance of success and greater protection to the taxpayer. Fine Gael went on to propose the creation of "brand new good banks with clean balance sheets" and so on. Meanwhile, the Labour Party has argued that we must get credit flowing to business, identify the scale of bad assets, write down impaired assets, establish an Irish banking commission, initiate regime change in banks, cap executive pay, oversee a full investigation of Anglo Irish Bank and so on.

The reality is that we have two choices. We can allow the status quo to continue, which is not an option-----

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