Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputies Mitchell, Perry and Varadkar.

The legislation is a long time in gestation if we understand the Minister correctly. Fine Gael has been calling for resolution legislation for a long time and, eventually, it has arrived. It is not appropriately named, as it is not the kind of resolution Bill I was expecting. This Bill empowers the Minister to do whatever he likes with the banking sector and I do not see many resolution measures in it.

It is a pity that he did not organise business in order that we could have debated it properly. There are 76 sections and every Member knows we cannot deal with this appropriately between now and 10 p.m. with a break of an hour and a half for Private Members' business. It is a ridiculous position to put us in and, despite putting several hours into them last night, I am not sure what all the sections mean yet. I would like to question the Minister and to tease the legislation out with proper Committee Stage and Report Stage debates. I renew the offer made by Deputy Kenny on the Order of Business. We are prepared to come back to the House next Tuesday if the Minister defers Committee and Report Stages to next week and we will go through the Bill and, at least, give it some justification.

There is nothing more serious in the eyes of the public at the minute than how we will deal with the banks and the banking crisis. The electorate is intelligent and when people see us ramming through stuff here that nobody fully understands, they wonder what we are at in this House. It is unnecessary. I acknowledge it is always difficult to draft complex legislation and have it out on time and I also acknowledge the Minister experienced a further delay when he had to stitch on provisions relating to bank bonuses to a section of the Bill. I presume that held him up for 48 hours but we should give the Bill a proper debate.

The explanatory memorandum is helpful in understanding the legislation. It is cast as emergency legislation and almost everything the Minister has introduced recently has been cast as an emergency measure. If there were not such recitals of public interest, much of what he has brought before the House would not pass constitutional muster and even though he did not recite public interest considerations in this regard, similar language is used. The Minister said this is an emergency, it is necessary in the current circumstances and it has to be done. There is a salute to the Constitution on the way through.

The section relating to the purposes of the Bill contains a number of interesting measures. One is very curious and the Minister might comment on it. One of the purposes is "to continue the process of reorganisation, preservation and restoration of Anglo Irish Bank". I thought one of the purposes of this legislation was to get rid of it but the idea that the purpose is "the preservation and restoration of Anglo Irish Bank" is a new one on me. The Minister might explain that concept. Is he trying to sneak up on them? Is he using the Tonto approach whereby he wants to lull them into a false sense of security before he buries them?

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