Larry Butler (Fianna Fail)

I agree with some of the comments about the banks. It is now a critical situation for small and medium sized businesses which are being squeezed daily and weekly for finance. They depend on restructuring their businesses at certain times of the year, as has been made clear. There is no question that the marketplace is telling us we have a major problem and that the banks will require capitalisation. However, we should not be too quick to consider recapitalising them until we have the full picture, and we are only now getting that picture because the Government has put people into the banks to examine the books and establish what type of liabilities there are. It is prudent to examine the situation first, and capitalise on the basis of the liabilities of each bank. We are aware there are substantial liabilities with some developers.

Part of the proposed debate on the economy should be about the banks. They are key to ensuring stability in banking services. If we do not have that, there will not be inward investment or support for small and medium businesses, which will lead to a worse recession when we will not have businesses at all. This is what I fear. Nevertheless, we must be careful before recapitalising the banks. We must know what amount of taxpayers' money will be involved. After all, no one will thank us if we do not do our homework first and ensure the taxpayer is getting value for money if an investment is made in the banks. That is how we should proceed.