Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

As one commentator put it, the debate taking place this week is the most important debate, declarations of war aside, in which the Members of Dáil Éireann will ever participate. We have two choices. We can go down the route suggested by the Government, with the guarantee, recapitalisation and then the buying up of the toxic assets and bad debts by an agency announced five weeks ago that is yet to be established and for which no legislation has been introduced, and about the status and size of which we still know very little.

There is, however, a choice facing the House and the Government - the Government way or the way contained in the Labour Party motion. Will the Taoiseach not accept that, given all that has happened, and that the steps taken to date to deal with the banking crisis have not succeeded, he should now bow to the inevitable and agree to the proposal the Labour Party is putting tonight, that the banks be taken into public ownership for the period necessary to clean them up and get them back to order?

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