Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Having listened to Deputy Kenny, I must state that what is at issue is not time provision. Apart from the fact that a guillotine of 9 p.m. is being applied, which is objectionable in itself and is an action usually the preserve of Government towards the end of a session rather than on the first day back, we are once again being asked by this Government to buy a pig in a poke. I do not need to have explained to me the importance of having a credible banking system in which we can have confidence. Sinn Féin demonstrated its acceptance of this when it participated in the vote on 30 September 2008. What went wrong subsequently is that the commitments received from the Minister and our reasonable expectation of how the guarantee would be presented, advanced and legislated for was totally at a remove from everything we were given to believe.

The record of the House shows that I repeatedly asked the Minister for Finance on the floor of this House on that evening if he had any further information that was pertinent and relevant to our taking whatever decision we were to take in regard to the proposition and that he did not state any reason for further concerns. We have since learned that the Minister then had critical information in regard to Anglo Irish Bank, which he learned on the evening before from representatives of the two main banking institutions in this State, namely, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank. The Minister withheld critical information from Deputies on the floor of this Chamber, which is a damning indictment of him and the Government. We cannot trust the Government. The people do not trust the Government; that is a fact.

Sinn Féin was prepared to, in good faith, accepting the basic principles of the argument——

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