Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

What is being proposed here is an arrangement for the presentation of Revised Estimates and their consideration by the respective committees of the Houses. In normal circumstances, the House would agree to this but these are not normal circumstances. The changes being made in departmental Estimates are fundamental. There are major changes being made in this regard and we need to debate in the House the revision of the Estimates process and the associated logic.

As the Tánaiste will recall, I asked the Taoiseach yesterday some questions on the report presented by the International Monetary Fund, IMF. In his reply, he said, in effect, that the IMF's figures were wrong. The IMF has issued a statement standing over the figures it presented, which show that the cost of stabilising the banking system in Ireland will be more expensive than in any other country in the developed world. The cost will amount to €6,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. In such circumstances, we need to have a debate on the Revised Estimates. We need to have the Taoiseach back in the House to explain how he got his information so wrong yesterday. We need a debate on what the Government intends or does not intend to do about the banking system.

We need to do more than agree the motion on the Revised Estimates without debate. The House is being asked to agree, without debate, that the Revised Estimates would just be handed over to the Departments and that arrangements would be made for the presentation of new Estimates, as if it were just a case of making adjustments in the Estimates for a few hundred thousand euro here and there. We are in an entirely different set of circumstances and the issue needs to be debated properly in the House.

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