Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is not true that we did not support Cyprus in its hour of need. Ireland expressed its solidarity with Cyprus with regard to what was happening there. No country wants to see a crisis in its banking system. Cyprus's banks are closed and people are limited to taking €100 per day out of ATMs. We have seen a very severe package being put together to address the banking situation.

The sequence as I understand it began some time ago when it was known that there were problems in the Cypriot banking system. A general election took place in Cyprus and there was a change of government. Discussions took place which resulted in a early proposed package of measures, some of which were favourable to the Cypriot Government. It was rejected by the Cypriot Parliament and came back for further discussion.

There is no doubt that what is happening in Cyprus is serious and severe. The imposition of major levies on deposits and people's savings has a very severe impact. It is not a route that this country, thankfully, will go down. We are in an entirely different situation now. The way we handled the banking crisis that we inherited from Deputy Micheál Martin's Government was entirely different. Thankfully, we have not had to travel the same route as Cyprus.

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