Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

I support the request from my colleague, Senator Fitzgerald, for an early debate on the economy and banking matters. It is important that when we are spending a great deal of time here properly casting a verdict on what happened last week, we bear in mind what the financial markets are saying about this plan. I do not want to spend too much time listening to what they are saying, given the difficulties that we are talking about. Nonetheless, since the Government announced its scheme shares in the large banks on the Irish, European and American stock markets have continued to slide. Yesterday was a cataclysmic day in terms of the performance of stock markets throughout the world despite the work of governments in all countries in stating what they will do about the challenges facing the banking sector. We would not be seeing these falls in share values if there was not severe doubt about the principles of the plan and the commitment to make it work.