Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I support the amendment tabled by Deputy Burton but I have no expectation the Government will accept it, irrespective of how good it is. There has been a crazy convention during my period in this House whereby the Government refuses to accept Opposition amendments. It will not accept this amendment or any other in this grouping because the Government has closed down and is operating in a perfunctory manner so that it can get through to Monday or Tuesday of next week when the Taoiseach will go to the park and finally dissolve this Dáil, allowing for an election to bring in a new Government. It is depressing to be standing here two and a half years after the major banking crisis and discussing a situation that should have been resolved long ago, where the banks appear to be a law unto themselves and accurate information is still not coming through to this House and the representatives of the people of this State. I see no prospect of that regime - the Government-banker relationship - altering in the next few days. It will be more of the same. The Government will allow the banks to paddle their own canoe while pouring billions of taxpayers money into the banks to try to keep them barely standing. It is beyond belief. I look forward to a new Government, of whatever hue, being more open on this point and being more forceful in dealing with this bonus crisis.

Hopefully it will also deal with the bondholders because we remain tied to the private debt of banks, where private international speculators sent money into private investment schemes here, called banks, which were not underwritten by the taxpayers or the Government. Nevertheless, the taxpayers are expected to pick up the tab for all of that. It beggars belief that it is happening. We can consider other examples, such as Iceland, which dealt with this in a more proactive way. Iceland is beginning to move forward at long last. We have been through this more than enough.

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