Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I want to pick up on his comment that there is no question of default. I understand why Deputy Noonan, as Minister for Finance, can say nothing else. For the Minister to start engaging in the kind of things I might say would drive up borrowing costs for Ireland. As a Member of the Oireachtas, however, it is very difficult to hear.

The Minister made some fantastic speeches in opposition, including calling the payments to bondholders a disaster and an obscenity and asking how any Government could stand over them. The Minister laid out why he is doing it and, although I do not agree with all of what he is doing, I understand why he is doing it. Some 40% of the debt is not ours. The markets do not believe there is no chance of default and have factored in a greater than 40% chance of default, reflected in the sovereign risk premium. The Minister cannot say there is any chance of default but I can and I will. It may be necessary and we should always bear in mind that 40% of it is not ours. We would never default on debt that was ours.

Regarding the question of Deputy Dara Murphy on the letter to Anglo Irish Bank and wages, did the Minister send a similar letter to AIB? What is the level of debt surrender engaged in by Bank of Ireland? If the Minister does not know now, he can come back to us. We had an extraordinary presentation by Richie Boucher last week, where he refused to answer legitimate questions. In some cases there was no commercial sensitivity or non-disclosure reason why he could not answer. He thumbed his nose at the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and it was an extraordinary performance. I would appreciate it if the Minister for Finance can find out. In respect of domestic mortgages, has Bank of Ireland engaged in debt surrender to date?

I would love to hear the thoughts of the Minister for Finance on the fiscal union in five years' time. The two-pack is pretty serious. The first part refers to regulations on "common provisions for monitoring and assessing draft budgetary plans and ensuring the correction of excessive deficit of the Member States". This is serious in terms of national sovereignty. The single supervisory mechanism, the single banking regulator, the common capital requirements and the Stability and Growth Pact are serious matters and we are signing up to them. Can the Minister for Finance give his view on what it will feel like for the Oireachtas to make a budget in five years' time? Will European officials see the budget ahead of time? Will they be able to veto budgetary options the Government of the day would like to engage in?