Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

The gross incompetence of the Financial Regulator and the Central Bank and the catastrophic failures of the Government have trashed our economy and brought the country to the edge of bankruptcy. The Government has fractured the basic trust that should exist between citizens and those who govern them. People neither believe this Government nor trust the banks, and with good reason. Far from stabilising the banking system, the Government's banking policy has fatally undermined confidence in our banks at home and abroad. The President of the European Central Bank, Mr. Trichet, expressed this succinctly in recent times when he said credibility is what matters. Credibility has drained away from the Government and rightly so. Any Government that tries to spin a bailout as a positive development is bereft of credibility and of shame.

The Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, recently spoke about playing high-stakes poker. I suggest it was more a case of strip poker. The only card the Government had to hold to cover its nakedness was the joker. Having crashed the economy into a brick wall, the Government wants us to forget the crash and talk instead about how the ambulance will help us. No one should be under any illusion about the medicine being dished out in this deal. We should not forget that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, wrote and signed the letter of surrender. Our new masters will be checking our wallets every week to see how much cash they can take on foot of the ridiculous deal that has been negotiated by the Government. The Government has been well and truly exposed. The emperor has no clothes. The Government's banking policy is worth no more than a beaten docket on the floor of the Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway Races. The Government is like our banks - broken and bust. It is time for it to go.

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