Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I have four questions initially. Will the Minister state the protections available to Irish depositors? The statutory guarantee is limited to €100,000. Does the guarantee re-enacted in the House yesterday provide a guarantee to depositors of an unlimited nature? Will the Minister set this out because people are concerned?

The Minister has a strong legal background and has acknowledged legal ability. He is aware he is the only Cabinet Minister, apart from the Taoiseach, specifically mentioned in the Constitution and his role is enshrined in the Constitution. Has he sought legal advice from the Attorney General on what his position will be in the process of budgetary control if in future the Minister becomes, in effect, a kind of puppet on a string for the IMF? Has the Minister checked whether his actions could be challengeable in law if he is not carrying out his constitutional functions independently?

Third, the trigger for this crisis, as I understand it, was the liquidity crisis in the banks. The Irish banks had two sources of funding, depositors, money from the ECB, and money from the ECB through the Central Bank. The risk of the flow drying up was the trigger but the reason people were losing confidence in the Irish banks was due to an underlying fear of insolvency. Independent commentators and colleagues in Europe have moved away from the concept of recapitalising the Irish banks, which was the term we used previously in debates in the House in terms of the bank having a black hole and that we needed to recapitalise. They are now talking about restructuring the sector. Is the distinction in language significant? What does the Minister understand the approach from Europe will be now to the banking sector?

The fourth question is for the Minister to expand on Professor Honohan's statement of this morning. Will he try to put figures on his general statement that a loan fund of several billions on which the Government could draw was to be put in place and that the drawdowns would be conditional? Will the Minister comment on the size of the loan and the conditionality which would be required in terms of budgetary policy?

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