Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I did not think that it was possible for the Taoiseach and this Fianna Fáil Government to do any more damage to the country after the disastrous decision it made to provide the blanket guarantee to the banks which tied the banks to the State and which has brought us to this sorry pass with one disastrous economic decision after another. However, by any standards, the deal that was done last Sunday is a sell-out of this country. It is a sell-out of the taxpayer, who will now have to pay the full cost of bailing out the banks, protecting the European banks and paying the full cost for the mismanagement of the economy by Fianna Fáil.

Last Sunday, the Taoiseach and his Government took this country to the pawn shop. I cannot believe that he comes to the House and tries to convince us that what he got last Sunday represents some kind of a good deal. He got a loan facility but €17.5 billion of it is our own money, most of which is from the National Pensions Reserve Fund which should be used to invest in jobs and to get some growth back into the economy instead of it being pumped into the banks to follow all the money we have already pumped into them.

The Taoiseach has ended up with a rate of interest for the loan facility which is higher than the interest rate applied to Greece.

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