Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)

-----but continued to support the pouring of taxpayers' money into failing banks, including €3.4 billion to Anglo Irish Bank every year for the next 14 years and €700 million to one unguaranteed, unsecured bondholder in the coming weeks. In this legislation we are creating the ability for future Ministers to do what the Labour Party objected to in the past but has failed to put a stop to. This is a continuation of the bank bailout.

We recognise that the Government has amended this legislation to reflect the concerns of the credit union movement, but we feel the lessons of the past have not been learned and that the banks should take more responsibility for their own operation. We will be opposing this legislation, as we did in the Dáil, because we feel it represents another blank cheque for the banks, allowing them the opportunity to repeat the mistakes of the past. I thank the Minister for coming to the House.