Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)

The truth hurts. The Labour Party might want to highlight the fact that it alone rejected the bank guarantee and is only dealing with the legacy of the mess left by Fianna Fáil but it is wrong. Today does not just herald that U-turn, marked by Deputy Doherty in the Dáil, it happened in June behind closed doors in Government when the ink on the programme for Government was barely dry. The Cabinet, including Deputies Joan Burton, Richard Bruton and Michael Noonan, vocal opponents of the bank guarantee legislation, agreed to extend the guarantee to the end of this year and sought Commission approval for it.

Today the Government Senators must vote to endorse what is universally regarded as the most costly and damaging decision ever taken by an Irish Government. Sinn Féin will vote against it, as we voted against the previous ELG extensions. If the Senators want to look at the response from the Minister for Finance to a parliamentary question, "The formal statutory legal basis for the guarantee was provided by the Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Act 2008 and the Credit Institution Financial Support Scheme 2008. That was formally approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas on 17 October 2008." Sinn Féin voted against that and no banks were able to sign up to it until 24 October. If Senators read the transcript, it is there and they will see it.