James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

The country is standing on the edge of a cliff. We need to face up to those issues. The Bill is a waste of the House's time. Rome is burning and we are arguing about the nitty gritty technicalities of reforming the structures of the Central Bank when, in fairness to it, it clearly warned us, but the man who should have been listening and the person who had responsibility for listening did not listen and we find ourselves in the current situation. We were warned of the dangers we faced and the dangerous path we were on but people just carried on regardless - people who should have known better. The Taoiseach of this country was the Minister for Finance at the time. It is clear to me and the vast bulk of the citizens of this country that what we need is not reform of the Central Bank per se but a change of policy and a change of government.

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