Dan Boyle (Green Party)

The visit to this country by representatives of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund may, as Senator O'Toole indicated, provide a response which will help us to deal with the budgetary and banking crises. Given the likely nature of the proposals, they could, if accepted, have serious consequences for the country. We need to be aware that it would not be a desirable outcome if such proposals were regarded as an indicator of our inability to make decisions.

We find ourselves in a serious position. Beyond legitimate criticism of Government decisions, we need to consider the long-term consequences of the current position for the country. Policy errors were made, but regardless of what policy approaches were taken in recent years, we would still face a serious problem. At best, we could have lessened the impact of the banking crisis. The scale of the crisis was such that the taxpayer would have had to provide billions of euro, either through a bank guarantee or by reneging on the debts to senior bondholders.