Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

If we are talking about W. B. Yeats, I should mention the great Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe wrote the novel Things Fall Apart. Listening to Deputy Fahey, I was also reminded of lines in another poem by W. B. Yeats:

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Deputy Fahey definitely comes to mind in that respect.

Confidence will return to Irish bank depositors, Irish businesses and foreign business in Ireland only when the banking crisis is settled and we have a functioning banking system. Regardless of what defence Fianna Fáil offers for its actions with regard to the banking crisis, the crisis dates back to March 2008, when Deputy Brian Cowen was still the Minister for Finance and waiting to see when Deputy Bertie Ahern should be taken out. In that month the price of shares in Anglo Irish Bank collapsed and Deputy Brian Cowen refused to do anything. A month later, as he waited to become Taoiseach, he was wined and dined by Anglo Irish Bank but still apparently knew nothing.

It is only when we have worked through this crisis and this Government has gone that reliable confidence will return in Ireland, in banking in Ireland and in bank deposits in Ireland. The statements by the Governor of the Central Bank, the Minister and various European agencies such as the ECB with regard to guaranteeing and back-stopping deposits are welcome. We will only regain our confidence and sovereignty when we see the passing of this Government and a focus on a plan for economic restoration and growth with a final sorting out and accounting of the banking crisis.

The Minister can sweet-talk us with notions that all the European Ministers crowded around him at the meeting to force him into this position. I heard, however, they were extremely annoyed that he was not just an hour and a quarter late for the first meeting but over an hour late again for yesterday's meeting. There was extreme annoyance with people losing patience with the way the Government is presenting the Irish case.

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