Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I am sick of Labour Party Members claiming theirs is the only party opposed to the bank guarantee. If that is so, why are they supporting its extension? Are they saying that it is now necessary to do so in order to prevent deposit flight and a run on the banks? Those are the arguments used by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party for the introduction of the guarantee. Is the change in the Labour Party's position simply a consequence of its now being in government? Its undertakings on this issue, on the renegotiation of the IMF-EU bailout, on third level fees and its absolute pledge to protect child benefit from any further reductions are as worthless as shares in Anglo Irish Bank.

The reality is that our financial institutions are still effectively zombie banks, mere conduits for the ECB funding which is used as blackmail to ensure continued payments to bondholders in order to shore up the EU banking system at the expense of our economy, welfare payments and social services. In October 2011 lending to households fell by €614 million, while lending to business was down by €500 million. International deposits are still being withdrawn, amounting to €4 billion in October, which was a small increase on August and September. Since September last year banks have lost one third of their deposits.

The policy of propping up zombie banks is a disaster which has cost €70 billion thus far. The only solution is a publicly owned, democratically controlled banking system. I refer the Minister to a recent report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development - not exactly a socialist think tank - which argued strongly for publicly owned banks which would provide greater stability and would not engage in speculation. I ask the Fianna Fáil Members who support this proposal to reflect on the statement by the former Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan, that the guarantee would turn out to be the cheapest bailout in history. It has already cost Irish citizens €70 billion, which is half a year's GDP. It is shameful.

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