Joe O'Toole (Independent)

County Louth is very well represented in the Seanad. We look forward to all the delegates from the county telling us how we should do business and make an input. I congratulate the Senator and wish him well.

The issue raised by Senator Fitzgerald about the banks is a very important one. I support, in general, the Government's banking policy, although it is not handling the issue well and is misleading time and again. I have had to explain Government policy on a number of occasions when people did not understand what was going on. Senator Fitzgerald is right that there was an unexpected development over the weekend when, instead of getting €250 million, the Government received shares from Bank of Ireland. In itself, that is not bad but, given the discussion on the availability of credit, we should note there has been a positive spin-off which should be welcomed by all parties. Bank of Ireland now has an extra €250 million to deal with normal banking activities which brings us closer to the point where credit will be extended to small and medium businesses and people seeking mortgages. There is a positive side which should be welcomed but I did not hear Government representatives say this over the weekend. There are issues that we must all consider, including the recapitalisation of the bank in the next month or year. That is part of the process and not a big deal.

The Leader should take special note of my next point. There has been an argument across the House between the Government and Opposition sides about the extension of credit. In the course of the passage of the NAMA legislation there was a major argument when the Government rejected a proposal from Fine Gael that the Minister be given the power to force the banks to extend credit. I made it clear at that stage that this could not be done. I also made it clear here last week that the Minister of Finance, in spite of being accused of saying that he would force the banks to extend credit following the development of NAMA, never actually said that. However, he has led people to believe it, and he did it again yesterday morning on "Morning Ireland", when he stated there would be legislative measures to ensure credit was extended to businesses that needed it. That is magic speak and double talk. He is letting people hear what they expect to hear, but it is not what he said at all. One minute later on the programme, he said that the new legislation next month would ensure that credit could be extended to small and medium enterprises. People again hear that this is something new.