Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

Having seen this problem coming, we are well placed in Government to help the country get out of it. It is a hard time to be in Government, but I believe it is the right time for the Green Party to put its vision into action for it is a time of real change. We will ensure that there is change in the strangely conservative and reckless banking system we have, conservative in that it was obsessed with property as the only area in which it saw enterprise as being possible, and reckless in the way that it let property lending go. We will change that. We are already starting to introduce change in the planning system, which no one else was able to do for 30 years, to end the blatant wrong whereby speculative profit could be earned from a public good, which was the rezoning that took place in that time. We are changing that and can make further changes in our planning system learning from the mistakes that have been made.

More than anything else we can change the spirit of enterprise in this country, to create a new model which is truly sustainable and gives our people not just an economic mantra for growth, but also an economic model which delivers cultural change. It will also deliver a sustainable future that people can be proud of and buy into not just for economic benefit, but also because it is the right thing to do.

It is a hard time in Government and hard decisions must be taken, which provide no political advantage. They are easily picked up by the Opposition with trite soundbites that do not go into the complexity of the issues, which are hard to explain. It is hard sometimes because the information one has cannot easily be shared when it comes to financial and commercial markets. Many commentators are making comments without being apprised of the broad information one has within Government and which sets the environment within which decisions have to be made.

We have been in Government for the past year when, on a series of occasions, action needed to be taken and decisions made. That was not easy but we have made our contribution and will continue to do so for the national good. It was not easy taking that decision on the guarantee, but I ask anyone else even with hindsight to put themselves in the Government's shoes when there was the real prospect of banks not having money to open the next day. Would they have called the decision otherwise in seeing what they could do to take the country through this difficult time? If they called it another way, what would they do in such circumstances? While that guarantee was a difficult decision and has consequences - we said at the time that it was not without risks - it is one that may be part of a series of decisions that will help us to get out of these difficulties.

Similarly, when it came to the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank, we looked into the corporate governance issue and found there were serious problems there. We could not give that bank carte blanche to continue as if there was not a serious corporate governance problem. We have to respect the separation between the political and criminal justice systems. Much as we would like to see people being brought to book for that - being led away quickly in handcuffs, as they can do in America - we had to make those decisions in a responsible and correct way, putting in the necessary criminal investigations.

See this speech in context