We need long-term reform of the banking sector. The Government is stubbornly and stupidly obsessed with bailing out the banks. As a result, the real domestic economy which needs vital stimulus has been ignored. Job creation, public services and stimulus have all been ignored or undermined. Worse, the Government policy of cuts sucks money out of the real economy and transfers it into the mysterious black hole that is the financial economy. According to the NCB Purchasing Managers' Index, Ireland's manufacturing sector shrank again in September. Statistics from the CSO show that in the year to the end of July, retail sales, excluding cars, fell by almost 5% on the previous year and the construction sector, which as we know is in dire straits, represented 30% of all insolvencies.

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