Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I love to hear lectures from people on the Fianna Fáil benches about the irresponsible attitude of the Opposition when we do not agree with their proposals, especially when they created the mess in the first place. Criticism should be based on facts. People should go to the trouble of reading or understanding the alternatives presented by our party and by the Labour Party. They should criticise when they know the facts. I suggest such people should not talk about €2 billion and about setting up a bank in six weeks. They do not even know that this was a wholesale bank which was designed to make money available to the retail banks but on condition that the money be used for lending purposes to help businesses. This would allow the existing banks deal with their own problem. We did not create this problem.

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