Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I have been seeking not to assume any more risk than the State must assume at any given time. The Deputy's proposal does not deal with the funding or bad debts issues. It deals with ownership.

The question is what is best to do in this situation. There is a continual effort to portray Government investment as bail outs for the banks. We are in the business of trying to help those who depend on banks, we need a workable banking system. I know the traction and resonance candidates can get on the doorsteps when suggesting this is about bailing out banks. This is about trying to bail out the Irish economy, trying to save the Irish economy by having a proper banking system.

Certain decisions had to be made to do that in terms of the scale and magnitude of the challenge that faced us. When we introduced the bank deposit guarantee, it stopped banks collapsing because people could safely leave their deposits in place. Other countries followed but the Labour Party opposed it in this House.

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