Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

They are attacking and criticising the Opposition. That criticism is rather cheap. In both Houses we have supported the Government and taken it on trust with regard to the State guarantee. We knew decisions had to be made. At the time we suggested that recapitalisation of the banks would have to be addressed. That was rubbished by the Government, yet ultimately it realised that it had to be done. The Opposition opposes not for its own sake; it opposes bad policies, that is, policies that are ill conceived, ill thought out and do not represent a balanced and fair way of trying to resolve the country's problems. The Government cannot have it both ways. It cannot deny information to the House and bypass the Houses of the Oireachtas when developing economic policy and still suggest the Opposition is not being constructive. The Leader should address that issue in his response.

The issue of fairness has been raised with regard to the measures that were belatedly adopted by the Taoiseach yesterday. The fact is the Taoiseach failed in his objective. He worked to get an agreement with the social partners and stood by that process as the way out of the current economic morass. He failed in that endeavour. He put a brave face on it in the Dáil and cobbled together a programme that is supposed to deliver savings of €2 billion this year. We will see if he delivers on that.

There is, however, the issue of fairness. I can understand that many civil servants feel aggrieved that they are being targeted when one contrasts that with the way this Government has dealt with the banks, executives and officials in the banks and the issue of pay in the banks. When the issue of loans in Anglo Irish Bank was raised last December, the Minister for Finance said it was disappointing. There are still executive directors, one of whom was responsible for group risk analysis, on the board of that bank. A risk officer was moved aside after raising questions about the procedures in the bank. Nothing has been done about this. Consider what would happen in any other organisation where there were such goings-on in terms of the approval and transfer of loans. Who approved and signed off on them? Who dealt with that documentation? All of those people would pay a price in any other financial institution in the world. It is that example that needs to be given by the Government both domestically and to the international market. I ask the Leader to address those two points.