Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I sat in silence, as I regularly do, while I listened to others' contributions, even though I fundamentally disagreed. I would like to take the opportunity of my contribution to rebut them. This is what I am doing. If a political charge is made by those on the Opposition side of the House, I am fully entitled to rebut the political charge on this side of the House. That is the nature of democracy and democratic debate.

I will share something with all sides of the House and use some of the words regularly used by Senator Alex White. I share the disgust at the way in which the banks have operated, but I am pleased the appointments to the Financial Regulator and the Central Bank - Professor Honohan in the latter case - and the submissions made to the various joint committees in recent weeks have revealed what was going on in the banks. If one is looking for the ruination of our economy, one need not go much further than the culture of secrecy and the lack of transparency within the banking system. Thankfully, it is being addressed by people who have been given teeth to do so. We will debate the Central Bank Reform Bill in the coming days. It will give legal effect to the two positions to which I referred.

Everyone has referred to one positive item of recent days, namely, the Bank of Ireland's share placing. It is not necessarily a vote of confidence in the bank but in the country. I appreciate Senator Alex White's comments on finance ministers not criticising one another, but he should examine what finance ministers and the ECB have been saying about the Greeks in recent weeks. For the past ten years, the Greeks have lied through their teeth about their country's financial figures. They lied so much so that it could enter the eurozone, which has us in our current state.

I wish to quote some of the comments made about what is occurring in Ireland. We have improved competitiveness, which will spur exports, our balance of payments is moving towards surplus and consumer confidence and spending are improving, as is business confidence. I have the graphs for Senator Alex White and anyone else who wants to see them.