Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

This is a populist motion by the Fine Gael Party, the key to it being that it "recognises the widespread public anger that those chiefly responsible for the crisis have not been held to account" and "calls on the Government to adequately resource the Garda". There is public anger. Everybody is angry about the way in which the banking system failed miserably.

Regling and Watson, and Governor Honohan, put the blame squarely on the banks. Messrs Regling and Watson stated that the primary cause of the banking crisis lies with the banks and their boards. While mistakes were made in regard to macro-economic policy, the Government has taken the blame for that, principally that counter-cyclical policies were not put in place by the Government during the period from 2000 onwards after we joined the euro up to 2005 to 2006.

The reality is that between January 2003 and January 2007 the total outstanding credit from the banks here increased from €160 billion in 2003 to €380 billion in 2007. That was an increase of €220 billion of outstanding credit from the banks. That is the cause of the crisis. We can put whatever connotation we want on it but that is what led to the difficulty we have today.

One of the interesting points made by Regling and Watson was that there was not the kind of expertise available to deal with the situation that was occurring. I did not see anybody-----

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