Shane Ross (Independent)

It is a tribute to him. It was Jack Tobin who put me right on this and told me I was unlikely, in that session, to make a great deal of progress. That was 28 years ago. He was not particularly enthusiastic about the motion, and he got his way. In many other ways he was robust in his views which he could convey in a particularly subtle way. He was never party political in any sense of the word, and he was very likeable. He also had a great way of dealing with the Cathaoirleach, which did not involve whispering in his ear at every possible opportunity. He briefed him well before he came into the House and never needed to brief him in the House. He was a distinguished, distant and extremely loyal, and loyal to the procedures of this House. We should recognise that. I express my sympathy to his family.

On the Order of Business, I am struck by the words of Senators Fitzgerald, Donohoe, Coghlan and other. On the issue of banking, which we will discuss tomorrow, what is striking is that this crisis is not over. That is worrying. I am also struck by the fact that everybody is beginning to be critical of the regulator. The regulator should resign because he has equal responsibility with others for what has happened. The issue of most concern, as Senator Donohoe mentioned, is that the guarantee which we gave is not convincing the markets that it has a great deal of credibility. What the Government did was not wrong; it was a good pre-emptive strike. To give a guarantee of €400 billion when one cannot possibly ever pay it defies people to see what it entails. The national debt is approximately €43 billion. We have given a guarantee on which we cannot possibly deliver, especially now when we are not a particularly healthy economy. We are not expecting to ever have to deliver but it is very unusual, in banking or commercial terms, for anybody to accept a guarantee from anybody who cannot pay it.

The credibility of this scheme is now in serious danger. I call on the Government to present the details of it to us immediately, not next week, or it will land us in more trouble than we expected. It does not matter what happens on the stock market, but the inability of the banks to borrow on the money markets is continuing. The details of the scheme need to be outlined immediately before things get out of hand. The markets continue to fall, which is an indication of what people think of what we have done, although that does not mean it is a reflection on what we have actually done. Nevertheless, it is important.