Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy will be aware that we have had a global banking crisis for the past two years. He will be aware there are 18 EU states who have recapitalised their banks to the tune of €300 billion. He will be aware there are bank guarantees to the tune of trillions of euro in European banking. It is time we recognised that Ireland could not be immune from what happened such as the fall of Lehman Brothers and the complete meltdown in the international financial system. What this Government has been seeking to achieve since this crisis emerged has been to avoid a meltdown of the Irish financial system which would have devastated this economy completely. This Government took decisions such as the guarantee which was fundamental to making sure we did not have a disorderly failure of our banking system two weeks after the disorderly failure in Lehman Brothers in the United States and with the impact this caused. Those are the facts.

The motivation of this Government at all times is to see how we can ensure that the Irish banking system is fit for purpose. Many complaints are made here, week in, week out, about the need to put our banking system back into order. The NAMA solution, an asset management agency solution, brought forward by the Government has been referred to in the international press as a way forward for this country and an example to other countries to extricate themselves from the problems continually bedevilling the financial markets and financial institutions of other countries. It makes the banks face up to the losses. It ensures that the capitalisation of the banks can take place in a way that provides investor confidence to get banks functioning for the economy and to try to maintain jobs. This is what we are seeking to do.

See this speech in context