The Green Party tonight called for political co-operation to tackle the country’s banking crisis.
Finance spokesman Senator Dan Boyle said it was critical to secure cross-party consensus as restoring confidence in the beleaguered sector was one of the biggest challenges facing the state.
“I believe that we politicians must work together to provide leadership and reassurance to taxpayers that the actions we are now taking are in the their interest,” Mr Boyle said.
“At a time when everybody is being asked to hand back more of their pay packet in taxes, it is far too easy for some politicians to promote popular but impossible ideas about what the government should do next.
“This is hampering our economic recovery.”
He said political bickering was a major threat to the recovery of the country adding consensus, based on the Swedish model, was necessary to speed-up the country’s economic recovery.
During Sweden’s financial crisis in the early 1990s the Government and opposition jointly announced a general guarantee for the whole banking system.
Mr Boyle claimed it would reassure the public the money being invested in the banking sector was being spent wisely.
“It is the nature of the political system to downplay consensus and either find or invent differences from which confrontation can be drawn,” he said.
“This is a healthy part of the democratic process and in normal times it is to be welcomed, but right now it has become a major threat to our recovery.”
The party chairman, who is standing as an MEP in the south constituency, praised the opposition for making valuable contributions on how to respond to the economic crisis but said it was time to deepen co-operation.
PA