Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I also welcome the fact that we are having a debate on banking, given that there is only one issue in the public mind today, as evidenced by the headlines, that is, the enormous amount of money we are pouring away to keep the banks afloat, particularly the zombie bank known as Anglo Irish Bank. The same questions are being asked by everybody: why are we doing this and how much more do we intend to spend on this bank? Those on the other side have suggested it would cost more to wind it down, but the real worry is that we simply do not know how much it will cost to keep it afloat. We have already spent €4 billion; yesterday we pledged to spend another €8.3 billion and there is another €10 billion needed.