Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The announcement that will be made today will be a significant one and it will give us the scale of the legacy of the banking crisis the Government has inherited. It is important that an opportunity be given for the Minister for Finance to respond to that announcement and that his response be made here in the House. Criticisms have been made previously that on the occasion of major banking or economic announcements the response by Government to those announcements was given outside the House, sometimes after the Dáil has adjourned for the weekend period. It is important that this opportunity be given in the House for the Minister for Finance to respond and that Opposition parties, in turn, give their initial response to it. Having considered and reflected on what is in the announcement from the Central Bank today, and the Minister's response to it, it is also reasonable that if Members and parties want to return to the issue next week, that can be discussed by the Whips and arrangements can be made for that.

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