Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

Will the Leader make time available for a debate on banking and banking regulation? We need to give careful consideration to the regulatory environment that applies in respect of banking. Momentum is building in the United States for the establishment of an aggregator bank. Under this model, bad debts could be pooled and managed centrally. This would allow banks that in a stronger position to proceed with their main business, namely, the supply of credit to the domestic and commercial markets. I am not necessarily saying we should do that, nor am I saying we should not do so. A debate on that issue would be positive. The aggregator bank idea is gathering momentum, in particular in the United States and the UK, and we should consider it.

Clearly some progress has been made in recent days and we have seen the markets rally since last Friday. I do not believe there have been five days over the past eight months when we have seen such a rally, so that is welcome. On a pan-European basis at the very least — I do not know if there are grounds to do so internationally — we need to begin to put together some basic regulatory conditions which we will operate into the future so that the disastrous situation in which we find ourselves internationally is not replicated in the future.