Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

The capacity of the country to fund its future would have been put in jeopardy. Thankfully, there were enough people who were responsible enough and prepared to take the tough decision to approve the scheme last night.

There is considerable talk about jobs, but some people refuse to engage in the fundamental questions of how to resolve the banking crisis in a manner that ensures that jobs can be created. It is very well to talk about the past and who was to blame. Everybody must accept their responsibility in that regard and I, as a member of my party, am happy to take the blame apportioned in that regard. However, that does not allow us to hide from the fact that we now have a responsibility and duty to put things right. Attempting to hide behind some fictitious suggestion that somehow all this can go away without impacting on the citizenry of this country is farcical in the extreme. We continue to hear from elements in the Opposition that bank bondholders - and I suppose by extension depositors - particularly senior bondholders can be told to take losses and that they will not be getting their money back while at the same time providing no explanation as to how they would fund our banks and economy in the future.

On the Order of Business, I heard Deputy Burton talk about the renegotiation of senior bonds. If we renegotiate with senior bondholders, we would need to do the same with depositors. Is she seriously suggesting that it would be possible to renegotiate with bondholders and depositors and then somehow expect there would not be a flight of capital from the country or that the cost of borrowing for the State would not increase exponentially? Although Deputy O'Donnell shakes his head, much of his party's NewERA document-----

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