Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

There is a proposal to construct a casino in County Tipperary, but I do not know if it is necessary because the biggest casino in the world is next door in Government Buildings. This Government is gambling not just with the entire economy of the State but also with the future of our people on this island. The Government even acknowledges it. Deputy Noonan quoted the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, as saying that we will have to play poker over the next couple of days. So it is about playing poker. That is how this Government is handling this crisis. I do not gamble myself and it is not for any pious religious reasons. I would probably lose all the time if I did gamble, but this Government certainly does.

This is crazy. The Government has lost every single gamble it has taken in the last two years. As a result of the Government's gambling, we now need not so much a bank bailout but a Government clear out. If we had that, we could put in place the infrastructure to deal with the banking and economic crisis in this State. I do not for a moment believe that we need the likes of the IMF coming in here with their terms and conditions to run this State.

Let us look at the example of the puppet show over the weekend between the Ministers, Deputy Dermot Ahern and Deputy Noel Dempsey. When asked about the negotiations and dealings with EcoFin, Deputy Dermot Ahern said: "I heard nothing about that. Did you hear anything about that, Noel?" Deputy Dempsey replied: "No, Dermot. I heard nothing about that either". That is why we owe a huge debt to Professor Honohan for his honesty and integrity on RTE Radio this morning, in coming out and laying it bare. He said that negotiations were ongoing about trying to secure a contingency fund or loan, and that it will involve substantial sums - tens of billions of euro. If the Government had been even close to honest with the Irish people from the middle of last week when all of these rumours were being churned out, we would not have had this concern, annoyance and deep public anger.

The Government could not lie straight in bed. Why did the Minister think that pulling the wool over people's eyes and bluffing was a better course of action than being reasonably open and honest with them? The public know exactly how incompetent the Minister and the Government are. If the Minister had shared at least some level of openness and honesty with them, he would have served the people of this State better.

Of course, they got away with it before. In the run up to the 2007 election, they were promising more tax cuts and more jobs. Similarly, in the Lisbon treaty referendum they promised more jobs for everybody. They were bluffing and gambling. What the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, said the other day was right. He and his Government colleagues see this as some kind of poker game. It is time Government Buildings were cleared out and changed from being a casino to a proper, functioning centre of governance.

Pouring billions of euro into the broken banking system will not solve it. If it goes some way towards stabilising it temporarily it will do so by breaking the backs of the Irish people. As the Minister knows, Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide are zombie banks. Anglo Irish Bank is holed below the water-line and is almost entirely in public ownership, or will be very shortly. The Bank of Ireland requires substantial additional funding for recapitalisation.

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