The figures are astronomical. Only a few months ago the Minister was talking about a total correction of €3 billion for the forthcoming budget. Now, it will be €6 billion. What happened? We received no accurate explanation for that. Only a while ago, the banks were sailing on to prosperity, there was going to be a wall of money and credit would flow everywhere as businesses were supplied with it. Suddenly, it all went wrong. Two weeks ago, there was a suggestion from sources in Europe, such as governors of central banks and spokespersons for the European Commission, that Ireland would have to be bailed out. The Minister's colleagues in government were as surprised as the Opposition because, according to themselves, they knew absolutely nothing about this. They denied it with great regularity over one long weekend. The Minister for Justice and Law Reform, who is now retiring, said this was all fiction. The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Deputy Mary Hanafin, said there was no basis to it and a line of Cabinet colleagues went into denial. Will the Minister finally tell us, two weeks later, whether he kept it to himself? Did he not brief them? Did the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach decide the bad news would leak from Government and that they could not tell the Green Party or their Cabinet colleagues? Worse than that, they were provided with a briefing note and let onto the airwaves to explain that everything was fine and everything will be right in the best of all possible worlds. That is what those Cabinet colleagues are saying publicly and privately. There is the small matter of collective Cabinet responsibility.

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