Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I am sharing time with Deputy Mitchell.

My party will support this Bill. However, I find it strange that the Bill was signed by the Minister for Finance on behalf of the State on 7 May yet we had to wait ten or 11 days before the House could debate the issues. The debate we are having is based on the legislation but the first tranche of money went to Greece this morning. I agree in principle with what we are doing but we need more debate, detail and disclosure which, to date, we have not got from this Government.

What is proposed is like the bank guarantee scheme the Government brought in that fateful night of 29 September. We did not debate that scheme until it was already in place. Concerning that scheme and Anglo Irish Bank, Michael Somers, the former chief executive officer of the National Treasury Management Agency, stated that for a long period prior to the scheme he was reluctant to give deposits to Anglo Irish Bank. Alarm bells were going off.

The Government should have had contingency plans in place for Anglo Irish Bank. It treated it in a different way when the guarantee scheme came into place where, effectively, the bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank were not guaranteed unlike those in the other institutions. There should have been a contingency plan. If there was one, was it acted upon or why was it not acted upon? These questions must be asked. I hope the Minister for Finance will answer them when he replies to this debate and that the bank inquiry will deal with the matter.

The measures proposed in this Bill will deal with short-term liquidity for Greece but will not address the country's long-term solvency issue which is key. We must look at this and ask whether this measure will bring about a situation whereby the euro will be protected, Greece will solve its financial crisis and will be in a position to repay the loans advanced to it from the other member states. I would also like to have detail on another matter. It appears that Ireland and other EU member states, although I can only speak in respect of Ireland, will lend money to Greece, ranking pari passu with existing private bondholders to the Greek State. The private investors in Greece would have known what they were investing in but Ireland is entering a bail-out package. I ask the Minister whether this will be ranked in the same way or to explain the position.

The Minister stated this assistance programme is to have quarterly reviews but according to section 4 of the Bill the Minister will provide only an annual report. This latter report should mirror the quarterly reviews to be carried out in respect of the assistance programme and should be given to the House on a quarterly basis. This sum of €1.3 billion is a significant amount of money for the State and there will be another €7.5 billion to come for the European financial stability mechanism. That would be our share.

We must support the eurozone and I am very pro-European. However, in this House, as I have noticed since I was elected, there is a lack of detail and willingness to debate issues. This happens consistently every year in regard of budgets. There is no proper debate in advance. We are presented with a pre-budget outlook and the actual budget on the day, with no discussion. I reiterate there was no prior discussion on coming into place of the guarantee scheme when it is clear there were advance warnings in the banking sector, particularly in respect of Anglo Irish Bank. The guarantee scheme was brought in on the day and tucked into it was the detail that subordinated debt of lower tier 2 was guaranteed. There are questions to be answered.

In terms of what is provided in this Bill, the annual report should be a quarterly one. We must ask where our debt ranks in regard to other debt. We must also look to protecting the euro, which is important. People will say the euro is depreciating in value against other currencies and that is happening. It will boost our exports but the currency is falling especially against the US dollar, although not so much against sterling. This will increase the cost of imported fuel which is denominated in US dollars. The actual fuel may not rise in price but the price will rise for us because of depreciation of the euro. Furthermore, with the depreciation of the euro the cost of borrowing may increase. The money raised today on the bond market by the National Treasury Management Agency was at 4.7% although it was offered at 4.5%. These are issues we must look at.

Deputy McGrath, unlike the Taoiseach, is now on the record of the Dáil as saying the Government was reckless and mistakes were made. However, we find the Taoiseach unwilling to admit these things. I saw his recent 7,500 word monologue described as like the excuse of the little boy who came into class and said the dog had eaten his homework. What we got was, effectively, an abdication of responsibility. The Taoiseach must attend the House and admit the Government was reckless during his period. He referred to the property tax schemes that were implemented and said he stopped them. He became Minister for Finance in December 2004. Most of those schemes did not finish until July 2008.

The markets are nervous at present.

See this speech in context