Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

We are expected to agree to these procedures, despite the fact that the Bill was ready a number of days ago when the House could have been recalled to discuss it. It is outrageous that we are expected to deal with it in a couple of hours. The House should have been meeting for the past few weeks to discuss not alone the banking sector but also the state of the economy, in its broadest terms, and other items to which I referred, including national issues relating to health and education services, in particular the appalling situation in accident and emergency departments, and the cutbacks in transport, as well as international issues which required debate and comment in the House.

It is being suggested that we deal today with this important legislation which was only published this morning. The Dáil did not have adequate time to discuss the Bill, the implications of which we are all aware. People are outraged and they want answers to a series of questions about it, the most important being: who are we bailing out? They appreciate, however, that it is important that we deal with the matter in a constructive manner in terms of the economy, which is what we on this side of the House want to do. Nonetheless, we must have in place proper procedures and adequate time to do so. We must get answers to the many questions the public is asking.

We are all aware of the meeting which took place last week about Anglo Irish Bank. People all around the country, including many elderly persons, want to know what will happen to their shares. They are outraged at the lack of regulation of institutions by authority. We have serious questions to ask about all of this. For these reasons, I oppose the Order of Business as suggested. This is not good parliamentary procedure.