Brendan Kenneally (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

-----will never have witnessed such a devastating downturn of the economy. While we had ups and downs in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, what has happened since 2007 is completely unprecedented.

We have only one chance to get this right. It would be prudent to ensure we have the proper international expertise to help us sort this out. This is undoubtedly the most important political decision in our lifetime. This has been stated by more than one speaker and it is a fact. The future of this country and generations to come totally depend on us making the right decision.

Whatever we end up with, we must all work with it and I include in that cross-party and all shades of political opinion. There is no point in getting into a game of political point scoring. We must send out a very strong message on Ireland Inc. internationally and we will not do so if we are arguing among ourselves. Internationally, we need to be considered again as serious players to sort out the various problems we have. While this very proactive decision may not suit the banks' balance sheets in the short term, nevertheless the future of the country and its people must take priority over any short-term fix. The rewards then will be all the greater.

Apart from commercial assets included in the €77 billion, a substantial portion relates to residential and unfinished houses and apartments. It is estimated up to 150,000 residential units remain unsold. Considering there is such great value in the market, I asked friends working in the banking sector why fewer mortgages have been taken out. They explained the banks have reverted to a previous practice in that a person looking for a 90% mortgage must put down a 10% deposit. We should never have moved away from that practice but it happened. Many people do not have the 10% deposit to put down because they got out of the habit of saving, despite the efforts of the former Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, with the special savings investment account scheme, SSIA. People must realise they must have a deposit before they can get a mortgage. At least that will mean they will have manageable mortgages which did not happen in the past.

It is projected that overall income this year will be reduced by more than €15 billion compared to 2007. This, coupled with social welfare expenditure expected to come close to €20 billion, makes for a serious situation. It was recently reported on RTE that approximately 130,000 mortgages are in negative equity of which 50,000 holders are unemployed. This is projected to rise to 250,000 and 100,000 respectively in 2010.

The two most important issues to be dealt with are banking and unemployment. If banking is correctly dealt with, then employment will have every chance. The Minister for Finance is trying to keep politics out of this as much as possible, as it more an issue of how best to tackle the problem. I accept the bona fides of the Opposition parties. While I may not agree with them, I believe they are putting forward what they genuinely believe to be the right solution. Assuming this legislation does complete its Second Stage in the House, I would hope that everybody can work together in order to get as good a Bill in place as is possible.

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