Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

I welcome the fact we have an opportunity to debate the banking crisis tomorrow. We should also have an opportunity to discuss the agreement reached yesterday.

Many days are described as momentous in politics, but clearly for this country, its citizens and the economy, today is a momentous day. We heard the disturbing news this morning about the Quinn Insurance Group. I raised the future of that group on the Order of Business here some time ago, and the connections between that business and Anglo Irish Bank, and what this would mean for the future of the industry. We will need to discuss this in detail in the House.

When we read about the billions of euro to be poured into the banking sector, today is a culmination of the failed policies of the Government over many years, the greed of bankers, poor decision making, poor management and the poor monitoring of our economy. The taxpayer and our children will carry this burden. If we look at the total amounts that are going into the banking sector, we are talking about €47,000 for every family in the country. If we look at what is proposed for Anglo Irish Bank, we are talking about €18,750 per family. When we talk about billions of euro, we forget what these billions could do if they were directed properly. There have been cutbacks in social welfare, the Christmas bonus was abolished, the medical card was taken from those over 70, while access to special needs has been reduced. Fine Gael does not believe that €30 billion should be poured into a failed bank like Anglo Irish Bank. We believe that this money should be redirected into the areas I have mentioned and into the development of our infrastructure to create jobs. It is not right for the Irish taxpayer to carry the mistakes of Sean Fitzpatrick's bank and other bankers. This is the wrong decision, but we will have an opportunity tomorrow to discuss this in detail when we hear what the Minister has to say this evening.