I speak tonight in favour of the Credit Institutions (Eligible Liabilities Guarantee) Scheme 2010 as proposed by the Minister for Finance.

I find it hard to swallow that the leader of Fine Gael would tell us he does not understand the circumstances surrounding the guarantee in September 2008. I have never heard a bigger admission by the leader of a political party in the history of the State of an inability to get his head around the extent of the issues involved. The real reason behind the shift in the stance of Fine Gael is more to do with recent poll figures for the leader of the Labour Party, where he is a more popular leader of the Opposition than Deputy Kenny. The Labour Party has been flapping its wings with much excitement and Deputy Kenny has fallen into the same trap. This short-sighted behaviour has led to gains for the Labour Party but they will be short-lived.

We on the Government benches are sorting out our banks now that our recession is turning the corner. We all know how volatile our seats are but our country comes first. It is called principle, something some on the Opposition side know nothing about. I knew the Labour Party was brazen enough to oppose for the sake of opposing, no matter what the consequences for the country, but I thought Fine Gael had more bottle. Today is a new era for Fine Gael, it is following the Labour Party lead of populist policy no matter what the consequences are for people.

It is a sad night when the Opposition is calling into question the expertise of the Governor of the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator based on fiction. I call on the media to take a balanced view on this and ask the hard questions of the Opposition that need to be asked, to inform the people of the inability of the Opposition parties to offer a credible Government. It is no wonder there are such cries from them for a general election because they will be found out and their populist policies will be short-lived.

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