Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Since the difficulties with the banks started, some of the political parties in this country have resorted to constant sloganising, rather than analysing the issues. In fairness to my colleagues on the benches directly opposite, they accepted that the collapse of the banking system, the closing down of the ATMs and the inability of people to gain access to their deposits would have been an unthinkable catastrophe. Unfortunately, the Labour Party did not agree with that approach and believed there was a magic solution that would keep the ATMs going and people's deposits safe while at the same time allowing banks to close. Such a proposition is both implausible and impossible. At the time of the guarantee, there were €51 billion in deposits in Anglo Irish Bank, of which €21 billion were of Irish origin. Does the Labour Party really suggest it believes it would have been of no consequence to this economy or that it would not have caused great disruption to people and their savings, had that €21 billion been lost? I hope the Labour Party would not be so cavalier with people's money.

Moreover, that money was made up in many ways. Charitable organisations had deposits in Anglo Irish Bank, as had many commercial organisations that are providing employment. I believe many credit unions had deposits in that bank, as there also were interbank deposits. In other words, what the Labour Party has never been willing to admit is that if one allowed the collapse of a bank, the contagion throughout the system could bring down the entire banking system. Therefore, at the time the Government guaranteed the banks, the option was either to put in a wholesale guarantee to protect the system or to face the terrible consequence that everything one takes for granted every day would longer exist. The ability to withdraw one's own deposits, to get money from the ATM machines or to make payments by writing cheques no longer would exist.

However, the amazing thing about the Labour Party is that it then put forward a proposition that the Government should actually pay the shareholders to nationalise the banks. The Labour Party wanted the Government to give money to the shareholders of AIB and the Bank of Ireland. That would have cost €4 billion of taxpayers' money to bail out shareholders, had the Government followed the Labour Party's mantra. The banks will be in State ownership, more or less, but the Government will not have paid a single euro to bank shareholders for those banks, contrary to what the Labour Party wanted to do.

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