Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion before us. The bank bailout that has been presented to the Dáil today is a gambler's nirvana. Sean Fitzpatrick and the big developers of this country gambled on the Irish property market, and that was funded by the banks. The gamble dramatically inflated property values. The banks then supported these untenable prices by providing mortgages of 100% and more to young couples, whom they knew would find it impossible to make their repayments if there was a downturn in the economy. The developers and the bankers gambled, they lost and now the taxpayer is being asked to repay these losses - some €16,500 for every man, woman and child in this country. This is what we are debating today. This is the bailout for which every single individual living in this country will have to put their hand in their pocket. Some 70% of that money will go directly to bail out Anglo Irish Bank, which will not create one job or support one small business.

Legitimate questions that have been put forward in the House and elsewhere by Deputy Richard Bruton have been ignored by the Government, which cannot provide answers to them. The Government attitude is that we must spend another €36.3 billion to protect the €4 billion we have already wasted on Anglo Irish Bank. This is nothing but roulette economics. It is €36 billion that could take half the unemployed off the live register and save the €4 billion in cuts which were announced last December.

As speaker after speaker on this side of the House has said, there is €2 billion in subordinated debt that is held by hedge funds, whose job is to run high risk funds with potential high risk of gains and losses. There is no reason the Irish taxpayer should have to bankroll those hedge funds yet the Government is guaranteeing everything. This goes back to the Taoiseach's commitment in the House that whatever cheques are necessary will be written to bail out the banks. It is threatening the country with national bankruptcy, the doubling of our national debt and the jeopardising of the future of our children and their children purely on a hunch that cannot and will not be backed up by the Government.

And all for what? To protect against reputational damage, we are told, because if we do not bail out the septic bank which is Anglo Irish Bank, it will damage the reputation of this country. While it may damage the reputation of the Minister for Finance when he meets his colleagues at ECOFIN meetings, Seánie Fitzpatrick was not too worried about reputational damage when he had secret loans of up to €129 million from Anglo Irish Bank. The Government needs to decide whether it wants to protect against reputational damage or against the long-term economic damage that can be caused to this country.

Deputy Richard Bruton pointed out that today's decision will freeze credit in this country for at least another eight months. Not one red cent will come out of the banks in the next eight months as they try to protect their shareholders. If we have a basket economy with more than 500,000 people unemployed, what reputation will we have at that stage? We must use the money that is being used to bail out Anglo Irish Bank to restructure our economy, to support business, to create jobs and to make Ireland an attractive investment. Will anyone remember Anglo Irish Bank in the future? If we can get our act together and build up our economy, no one will. Our reputation has to be based on getting people back to work and getting this economy off its knees.

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