Alan Kelly (Labour)

I was going to do the Minister of State a disservice by saying that was probably the worst speech I have heard from him in his time in either House but I believe that my colleague, the leader of the Green Party in this House, has just surpassed him.

Senator Boyle, in fairness, is somebody who usually has a good commentary on finance even if I do not agree with him. Seamus Heaney's phrase "Whatever you say, say nothing" comes to mind, however, with the Senator's contribution of today. Senator Boyle's speech was generic, had no specifics and did not really contribute very much.

The situation in which we find ourselves is unprecedented. The Minister for Finance has acted because he had no choice. He was backed into a corner. Nobody has said this in the House but we know we are all thinking it. The reality is that if the Minister did not act there are certain institutions in this country that would be in trouble. It is as simple as that. We have all heard the rumours and the discussion on this, and that is the situation.

Senator Boyle said that perhaps this Government has found an Irish solution to an international problem. It is the "perhaps" bit that worries me. There were other options. The Government has decided to go down this road. It is a matter that concerns approximately €400 billion and it is a huge gamble. What if it does not work?

How did we get to this stage? I wish to look into the area of regulation and we must do this very quickly. We had a banking system that gave huge loans to developers across the country and lent sub-prime mortgages. There was a real change in the area of credit cards and people were encouraged to change their type of banking in order to maximise their type of exposure. It is as simple as that. We all watched when the banks were with the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service answering questions. I know I did because I was intrigued and one could not get into the room.

I propose that we all read the transcripts and go to the chief executives and chairmen of the boards of all those banks, take out what they said a few months ago and ask them to comment on what they stated that day. As far as I am concerned there are two options available. The first is that those bankers were not telling the truth, the second is that they were not competent enough to know what was happening. It is as simple as that. Either scenario is terrible.

All the institutions that are being bailed out should be brought in front of an emergency committee. I refuse not to use that phrase "bailed out". Whether that committee should be the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service is for the Houses to decide. Perhaps it should be that committee. The bank representatives should sit down and be interrogated again. They should be told they have an opportunity to explain how we got to this scenario. If we do not learn from this the possibilities will be much worse.

What are we going to do concerning this bail-out? How will the Government ensure that the Irish taxpayer is not exposed to a huge risk? The difficulties are endemic and something must be done. We must look seriously at the option of having someone sit on the boards of all these institutions. That condition should be non-negotiable and I do not believe we should even debate it. The Government should guarantee such an action. If there is some excuse for not doing so then legislation should be introduced to cover it.

There is a recent US model which deals with circumstances such as these, in respect of executive pay, and we should examine it. In that model the executives of banks are not allowed to pay themselves enormous salaries of $1 million, etc. It is outrageous that the banking sector can pursue strategies of the kind it has done over the past number of years, paying its members in this way. In similar fashion, we must find out what sort of dividends the banks propose to pay in the coming two years under this deal.

I hope that penal charges will be adopted for banks that are to come under this cover. It is absolutely essential that the banking institutions do not feel that they are getting away with some type of stroke. What methods has the Government put in place to guarantee that the banking sector and those banks involved will reform properly, will change their ways and will not take undue risk and gamble under the terms of this bail-out? We need answers to this today.