Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

The Leader and his predecessor avoided like the plague in the previous two parliaments the practice of taking all Stages of a Bill in one day. The Leader himself often spoke about it as extremely bad parliamentary practice. All of those who have spoken have laid great stress on the difficult times we are in and the reports we are receiving, especially the ESRI report. It is logical that we should set aside time today to discuss those more serious matters and take the remaining Stages of the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill tomorrow. Until we get the banks situation sorted, until we know the level of the right downs and until we have a floor under the bad loan losses, we will not be able to get stuff transferred into the proposed national assets management agency, NAMA.

On the recapitalisation and restructuring, we are hearing nothing of the structuring. The recapitalisation has taken place in one bank, Bank of Ireland. I hope it will happen in the others and the speedier the better. This morning I received an important message from a small businessman who sold a property for €290,000. He agreed the net sale proceeds of €195,000 with his bank, Bank of Ireland, and the bank is ratting on the deal. How are we to keep the economy moving? How are we to keep the wheels of industry and commerce oiled? The man thought he had it agreed. He got a written undertaking. His solicitor gave the usual undertakings. He wants to pay his advisers, accountant, capital gains tax and VAT on rental income, and look what the bank is doing. This messing must stop. As all the other speakers have said, we should debate the more urgent business now and postpone some Stages of the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill.