Shane Ross (Independent)

I wish to share time with Senators Bacik and Mullen.

My first point might antagonise to some extent the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, for whom I have great admiration. This is a very important Bill which should have been fitted into the Minister's timetable because it is a reflection on the Seanad and its Members that we do not have the real McCoy here when debating an issue as serious as this. The competence of the Minister of State is not in question; nor is his ability to understand or explain the Bill to us. When the guarantee was granted, and he may correct me, the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, was not there. He is not key to the important meetings that happened during the giving of the bank guarantee and this banking crisis. It is not possible for him to answer the sort of questions we ask with the fluency, knowledge and ability the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, has. If the Government is serious about giving information to the Seanad, which I suspect it is not, and taking these Bills through the Seanad with a serious intent to listen to what people have to say, we should have arranged a time which suited him, if necessary, or vice versa. I do not blame the Minister because he has engagements. These things have to be done at short notice, but this is important. From a Minister of State we will get what we always get, notes passed to him by civil servants and him replying that way. I do not blame Deputy Mansergh.