Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. It has always been a hobby of mine to read over Dáil transcripts from decades past. The advent of the Internet has made it a little bit more enjoyable and reviewing them in greater detail is now possible. Since crossing the floor seven or eight months ago, I have taken to reviewing more recent transcripts. Yesterday, I read our debate on the Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Bill 2010 on 15 December. There was a degree of harmony between the Fine Gael and Labour Members, although they have sought to deny this a number of times. The current Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, stated that the Bill did not contain any provision for the restructuring of the debts of senior bondholders and that up to €16 billion of taxpayers' money could be saved by imposing losses and haircuts on the bondholders. According to the Minister, it was a key policy to be changed upon a change in government, given that the people were not responsible for the banks' debts and should not have been held liable for them.

There has been a change in government and those opposite got their wish - they are Ministers of State and Deputy Varadkar is a senior Minister. I can only assume that it is Labour that is holding Fine Gael back from burning the bondholders. Many times, it has been stated that they fought the election as two individual parties and agreed a compromise programme for Government. If so, they should tell us about it.

I moved on to what the Minister's colleague in Dublin West stated.

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