Alex White (Labour)

It is a matter for the public. If it is not a matter for this House, then what is a matter for this House?

I ask the Leader for a debate on the banks. Senator O'Toole seems to be in a better position to explain Government policy than the Government. He is right to say there is double speak and double think on this issue of credit. The principal basis upon which NAMA was advocated by the Minister for Finance, put through these Houses and supported by Members on the Government side was that it would lead to the availability of credit to small businesses. Every time anybody on the Government side says anything about NAMA, they claim that it is necessary so that credit can be provided to business. It is not leading to the provision of credit to business at all. We now have a policy that is not clear and is in a mess, and when the Labour Party was told a year ago that our position on nationalisation was ideologically based, the Minister is now doing precisely what we said he ought to have done in the first place. Let us have that debate on the banks as soon as we can.