Fiona O'Malley (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Calleary, and congratulate him on his role in resolving the public service talks recently. I am sure he was working behind the scenes there.

As regards the banking situation, what had to happen yesterday was most unfortunate. It was, however, a consequence of how things have played out. Any responsible person would recognise that while nobody wanted to get to this point, we are there now and must deal with it. In some of the earlier contributions it was disappointing to note the lack of realisation that we are all in this together. It does not matter whether one is on the Government or Opposition side, it is our country and we cannot let it down by the kind of contributions we heard this morning, particularly from the Labour Party.