Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I felt ashamed when I read the obsequious letters of the Minister for Finance when applying for assistance to Messrs. Juncker, Reynders, Rehn, and Trichet and separately to Mr. Strauss-Kahn of the IMF. The first two sentences in both of the Minister's letters reads as follows:

Ireland faces an economic crisis without parallel in its recent history. The problems of low growth, doubt about fiscal sustainability and a fragile banking sector are now feeding on each other, undermining confidence.

What a self-indictment; the Minister's critics could not have done better. It is an absolute indictment of his own policies as set out in both of the letters he wrote to our new masters in Europe and in Washington.

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