David Norris (Independent)

We are not protecting the taxpayer. The Minister of State has given us no indication on the situation regarding the money. There has been a great number of tragedies and repossessions. The chief executive officer of Aer Arann, Pádraig Ó Céidigh, was on my radio programme on Newstalk at the weekend. He has a turnover of €100 million, and after all the money that has already been pumped into the banks to prop them up, he told me he cannot get €100 from them.

I spoke about physical assets such as property and land banks. We should complete the half finished buildings, get the workforce back out there to work on them in a spirit of co-operation and provide homes for people who need them. We should also provide allotments for people who are out of work to grow vegetables and do something positive and constructive with their lives. That is my radical suggestion. We should nationalise the banks, create one bank with a decent reputation and have a national property management agency to manage land banks rather than toxic assets.