Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Do not take from my response to that comment.

In regard to the previous issue raised by Deputy Kenny, the Minister, Deputy Gormley, confirmed to an inquiry from a newspaper yesterday evening that the Minister for Finance at the end of that meeting on the Sunday briefed colleagues on problems experienced by the Irish banks in the context of international developments, the preparations and arrangements that were being made in the Department which have been spoken of in detail by the Secretary of the Department to various committees of the House, that the situation was being closely monitored and that the focus was on banking system stability. He also confirmed that while no formal decision was taken arising from the briefing, some Government action would have to be taken if the situation deteriorated. The fact of the matter is that no decision was made on the Sunday. It is not being contended by the Minister, Deputy Gormley, that one was made and any suggestion to the contrary by Deputy Kenny is not well founded, based on the Minister's clarification and confirmation of the situation for fear of any there being any misinformation or misunderstanding.

The main question Deputy Gilmore asked relates to his view that a correction of €4.5 billion is the best way forward and to whether the proposed €6 billion correction will create any difficulty. I heard the Deputy's finance spokesperson say this morning that the reason we are having this budget of a correction of €6 billion is because we have put €6 billion into the banks or something to that effect. There is this constant effort to associate the need for a correction with the need to repair our banking system. I reiterate that the fact is that if we never had a banking crisis, we would still have a situation to address in regard to our public finances where there is a gap of more than €18.8 billion, almost €19 billion, this year which has to be closed.

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