Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

It is unbelievable. Government Senators making their contributions tonight have all blinded themselves to the fact that they have landed this country in an unmerciful stew. To get ourselves out of this mess, there is a need to restore the trust of a huge sector of society that is completely alienated. There is a serious need for the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance to restore that trust before this country is plunged into even more crisis with public sector strikes and, from reading this article, potential strikes in the private sector. That will do nothing to rescue the country from the current financial mess. The Taoiseach should give a full statement to the House about what happened in the talks with the public sector unions.

All this talk of stabilising the economy is right in one area, the Government has stabilised the bonus payments for next year for the bankers, thanks to the €54 billion of taxpayers' money that is being given to them. The Government has done nothing, however, to improve the flow of credit to small and medium-sized businesses.