Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

I support my colleagues who called for debates on two issues. Senators Cannon and Coghlan raised an issue that was discussed on yesterday's Order of Business regarding the behaviour of banks. We will be discussing this matter in the context of the legislation on National Assets Management Agency in September, but in response to what Senator Glynn said, I emphasise that the Parliament cannot afford to stand idly by but the Government did stand idly by when the agreement was made to recapitalise the banks. If the Government had been aware of the dangers facing the small business sector, it would have agreed a stronger plan with those banks to ensure credit would flow during the period when they received €6 billion of taxpayers' money