Shane Ross (Independent)

I say that because I have no opinion at this stage on what sort of Minister for Finance he is. I do not know. It is ridiculous to get up here and congratulate him on his speedy performance and actions. Senator Regan was right. The man did it because he had to. The banks came to him begging him to do something about the situation, otherwise catastrophe would have hit us today. I do not know what they said to him. I presume, and the markets were signalling clearly yesterday, that a bank here was going to go under if we did not do something very quickly.

Let us not congratulate the Minister on this. What has actually happened in Irish banking history in the past four years is that the banks have been running rings around the Government, pulling the wool over its eyes, or worse still, doing things to which the Government has turned a blind eye.