Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

-----but it is wrong to promote this rhetoric, this cliché that is being used by the Opposition, that somehow our approach to stabilising the financial system in this country has to do with some relationship between the politicians in Government, bankers and developers. It is simply untrue, it is a falsehood and there is no basis to it, yet it has been perpetuated on the doorsteps over the past number of weeks by both Fine Gael and Labour without them offering any solution in terms of the stabilisation of our financial system.

Economic recovery - which is about creating sustainable jobs in the future and building on the high base of the social services that we have developed - will not be possible unless we stabilise the banking system and get credit released into the markets to sustain our businesses to create jobs. Not one proposal that this Government has put forward has been supported by Fine Gael or the Labour Party.

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