Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

Ministers must stop telling us we are not clever, smart or intelligent enough to digest the information and to leave it to them — the bright guys — to sort it out. They must provide us with the relevant information to ask questions so that whatever questions are not asked in the Dáil can be asked here. There are two to three days of discussion on this issue, at Government level, with the banks, with the regulator and in these Chambers and we should be able to debate the issues freely.

When the legislation has been sorted out, will the Leader ensure we have a second debate on the question of how we got to this position? We need that debate because of issues regarding the regulator, the banks and the serious concerns with regard to the Government response to the problem. As is well known, the Minister for Finance was talking up the construction industry and the banks up to the 11th hour, before the crisis blew up in his face and the stock market collapsed by 13% on Monday. If we do not have that debate, it will happen on the streets, which will not be good for either Fianna Fáil or its Government partners.