Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

Yes, but we are in the process and it is important that we temper our language in these debates to point out that the Government is not capitalising banks for the sake of giving them money to support the developers. It is to ensure we have a working financial system in this country. I use any forum to point out that the Government is fundamental about ensuring we have working banks in place. Every country is grappling with this major difficulty of impaired assets. It is not unique to Ireland but has happened across all modern economies. It started first with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the sub-prime market in the USA and it has spread across the world. The simplistic argument that has been put forward that we are just giving a few bob to the banks so they can look after developers is fundamentally unfair to what the Government is trying to do. More important, when Senators and Deputies raise the issue of lack of credit to mortgage holders and small and medium sized businesses to go about their daily business, it does not stack up.