Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

When we told the Government almost a year ago that the most prudent way of dealing with the banking crisis was the temporary nationalisation of the banks, the Taoiseach rubbished it. The Government has ended up with the situation where it will have nationalisation anyway by the back door in a dragged out way that is most expensive for the taxpayer. The Taoiseach's problem is that he has not been listening to the proposals coming from the Opposition parties and has not been acting accordingly. The Taoiseach has been taking decisions that are motivated by his desire to cover the tracks for his role and his party's role in the mismanagement of the economy in the past 12 years in creating the property bubble and the hand-in-glove approach it had down the years with bankers and developers.

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