Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)

The Government stated there would be no burning of senior bondholders in the pillar banks, which is what is on record. We expect those banks to have an international reputation to enable them to go back out in the near future into the markets to raise capital, which will be very difficult if just months or years previously they have burned many investors. It will simply not work that way - that is not how business or banking works.

I hate the expression "we are where we are". We need to use different expressions such as "we are where we are for a reason". The reason is that the State, back in September 2008, approved a banking guarantee which linked the sovereign debts of this country to the banking debt. However, there was a consensus on that. Sinn Féin cannot walk away from that or change the record. As its finance spokesperson said at the time, "this Bill is in the national interest".

To conclude, there is scope for a much greater depth of change in the banking system in terms of corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and the skillset of the people who work in the banks. I hope this will occur as part of the reorganisation.

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