Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

The events of recent years have been horrific. That was the word used by the Minister for Finance yesterday to describe the figures relating to the banking crisis, the amounts of capital required and the loans which need to be transferred to the National Asset Management Agency. There is no question about that.

Senator Twomey referred to the Government's responsibility in this regard. It would be disingenuous of anyone to say, retrospectively, that this was seen coming. While there were bears in the market and individuals who predicted that the events of recent years were likely to happen, no one predicted the scale of what happened. Besides, a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Senator Norris often quotes Professor Brian Lucey, the respected economist and associate professor of Trinity College, on the NAMA project.