Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

The motion of no confidence is nothing more than theatrics arising from the results of the recent elections. Much of the debate in the House has been disingenuous. In recent times, the Dáil has held debates on the economy and serious challenges facing the country. The Government has not shirked from its responsibility to address these issues, nor has it denied Deputies an opportunity to speak about the challenges facing us or the Opposition an opportunity to make proposals or express ideas. We did this to ensure we could pick the best brains in the Dáil.

The motions before us give Deputies an opportunity to examine the proposals being made from the Opposition benches. It is evident that Fine Gael and the Labour Party take diametrically opposed positions on the fundamental issues facing the country in this time of crisis. The banking issue is only one such example. On 29 September 2008, the Government had to make a key decision on whether to provide a guarantee to the banks of systemic importance to the State. Having deliberated, it made its call. From the contributions of Labour Party and Fine Gael Deputies, it is clear that a Cabinet composed of members of these parties would have failed to reach an agreement on how to address the fundamental issue of providing a guarantee to the banks in the national interest.

Deputy Gilmore, in raising the banking issue again during Leaders' Questions this morning, put forward the simplistic argument that the Government is recapitalising the banks by taking money from other areas. Every Member of the House, including Deputy Gilmore, is aware of the fundamental importance of the banks. We cannot allow one bank to fail but decide to save others. As many people in the United States will now admit, the biggest mistake made in their country in recent times was to allow Lehman Brothers to fail. The reason was the domino effect the collapse of the bank had elsewhere. One cannot isolate one bank and allow it to fail in the belief that other banks will survive. Allowing Anglo Irish Bank to fail would have drawn on the bank guarantee.

Simplistic arguments have been made in the debate on the most fundamental issue facing the country, one which affects us on a number of fronts. While we all accept there was an over-reliance on the property market, we did not hear many Deputies complain at the time. The policy documents and manifestos published by the Opposition parties prior to the 2007 election show they proposed to spend all revenue raised from the property boom. The Opposition did not issue warnings about over-reliance on the property market and was instead happy to spend all the tax revenues expected from continued price increases in the property market.

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