Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Whatever the event was - let us call it a tea party. There were tea cups and coffee. The Minister stated: "Governments have to prevent banks failing and stabilise them." There one has it - no caveats, no exceptions. Every bank is of systemic importance. None can be allowed to fail. In a nutshell, that is the new Fianna Fáil ideology. Children can be allowed to die or to live lives of dreadful suffering because of health cuts. Children can be educated in super-sized classes with little regard for their well-being, but no bank can be allowed to fail, whatever the cost to our country. Any speculative bondholder who risks his or her money in an Irish bank will be allowed the profit when things go well, but none can be asked to take a hit if things go wrong.

The private debt of Irish banks ranks equally to the public debt of the sovereign State. The taxpayer has to pay always. Does the Minister remember Seanie FitzPatrick? He gets to keep his mega pension pot no matter what happens. The banks are to be free commercially but if anything goes wrong then Ireland, as a sovereign State, will offer not one, not two, but three and maybe more layers of guarantee and insulation, as required, at whatever cost to protect them. Moral hazard is the standard rule of capitalism that decrees that one has to bear some responsibility for one's actions but the Minister has decided to set that aside.

I wish to quote from one university economist speaking about the Minister. Mr. Gregory Connor from NUI Maynooth stated: "Our current Irish Finance Minister is not competent for the job and his statements have no logical consistency. Trying to interpret his statements in terms of a logically consistent perspective on the current market environment is an exercise in futility." That pretty much sums it up. We are being railroaded by the Bill.

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