Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and assure him of my support for all he is trying to do for the country.

If there is good news tomorrow, the Minister will have our support in that but I am most unhappy about what is going on here this evening. It is scant regard for democracy. We have tried in this House to read every Bill thoroughly and table amendments, and several Ministers have complimented us on that. That is the kind of Chamber the Seanad is. It really is not good enough to bring in 59 pages of a Bill with notice of an hour or so.

I suspect our European masters are making the Minister do this, which is a shame. We should not be abolishing the IBRC tonight; we should be abolishing the ECB. It has been a disaster. There is mass unemployment through Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal. When does the ECB stop? It keeps conducting the experiment and the laboratory blows up. That should be one of the stances that Ireland should take during the Presidency. This currency has really been a shambles. It has spread debt and unemployment throughout the continent and it is about time some of those people looked in the mirror and see what they have done.