Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

How the Government deals with the banks will determine the future of the Irish economy and of this country. It is clear the attempts made to date have not succeeded. Business is not getting the credit it needs. Good businesses which would have a future if they could survive the recession cannot now get credit to act as a bridge in this difficult period, to protect the jobs of their workers and to stay in business, even after a succession of attempts by Government to ameliorate the situation. It is clear that the unqualified guarantee of the banks has not succeeded. Recapitalisation is now at €8.5 billion, which includes an extra €1.5 billion for the bank that announced yesterday it has a significantly higher level of bad debt than it had forecast two months ago. The book value of all the toxic assets is €90 billion, but even conservative estimates are putting the cost at anything between €24 billion and €30 billion. No matter where one pitches it, it is an astonishing level of debt to be building up not just for today's taxpayers but for our children and, possibly, our grandchildren to pay back in decades to come.

There is an alternative, which is contained in the motion the Labour Party has proposed for debate in Private Members' business tonight. It is that the banks be temporarily nationalised, cleaned up and put back in order.

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