Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Sorry I thought the Deputy said €27 billion. Some €20.7 billion has been invested in the years in question in the pillar banks. That investment is worth slightly more than €8 billion today, if we could sell it all off tomorrow. Obviously, there is an enormous deficit on the €20 billion we put in. In a circumstance where a deal were to emerge it would then be a matter for Government to see how exactly that issue would be resolved between the NPRF and other aspects of the financing of the State. Clearly the Government is ambitious in terms of the discussions taking place. The Deputy is aware more than most that those discussions are parallel. At one level we are negotiating with the ECB on the promissory note side, which is roughly half of the €64 billion that went into the banks on the Anglo side, but on the other, given the Heads of Government agreement last June when the EU leaders gave a clear undertaking to break the link between the sovereign and the banking debt and given the constructive remarks made by Chancellor Merkel and President Hollande in respect of Ireland's unique circumstance, we will continue to work on the recapitalisation money to ascertain how much we can obtain or in what form. Let us work out the argument.

There is a general expectation that the guarantee will come to an end at some point in the near future. As a result of that the banks suddenly become more profitable and over a period of years, their business improves, they get more investment and international funds come back into deposits. That investment is for us into the future. The whole objective of the strategy, as John FitzGerald of the ESRI said recently, is to get our money back from the banks, the money we have had to stuff into them over a period of years as a means of shoring up the system. How we get that money back is the issue as pointed out by the Deputy and what we do with it, if and when we get it back, is critical. A key priority for the Government next year is to bring all these matters to a conclusion, not only on the promissory note side but on the bank recapitalisation side. When that issue has been resolved it will be a matter for the Government to decide how to use those resources. The Deputy is correct, an investment of €20.7 billion has gone into the banks, the net worth of which is slightly more than €8 billion, and there is an enormous gap of €12 billion. How that is worked out is a matter for the Government to decide in due course.

I do not disagree with the Deputy's remarks about PPPs. He is right to point out deficiencies in the system. The critical issue is the construction of the contract on those PPPs and the management of same. We need to continually work on the contracts but into the future we should not put to one side the notion of a PPP. An example near my constituency, which he will be aware of as he travels on it every day, is the traffic lights at Newlands Cross, in respect of which I am glad to say the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and the National Roads Authority want to advance a PPP.

We have the money on our side but we need private sector money to come forward. We are confident we can do that. Many of the reasons people are hedging their bets and not coming forward with the money relate to the risk to the sovereign. As we diminish the risk to the sovereign, as has been demonstrated in our bond yields and the like in recent months, private sector risks in Ireland will diminish and people will begin to invest in these things again. Once we can get those contracts up and running, and fair to both sides, there is no reason they cannot be a successful component of Irish infrastructural development in the future.