Mr. Aidan Carrigan:

As I said earlier, the situation in Cyprus is very different to that of Ireland. The structures of the banking systems are dissimilar. Cyprus was a deposit-funded banking system. We have a different structure for funding our banking system. Furthermore, we have already experienced our banking crisis and our banks are fully recapitalised at this stage and the system of banking supervision has improved immensely. A considerable number of steps have been taken from the position in which we found ourselves several years ago. There is no comparison between Ireland and Cyprus and the Minister made that clear. Furthermore, he stated there is no question but that guaranteed deposits are guaranteed. The issue in Cyprus arose out of a decision by the Cypriot Government in its own right to impose a levy on deposits. Taxation is a matter for individual member states and Cyprus made that proposal. It was an unfortunate proposal and the Government indicated that it did not favour it as a solution for deposits under €100,000, which are guaranteed. There is no question regarding the guaranteed deposits.

As my colleague from the Central Bank has made clear, even under the existing legislation there is no absolute guarantee for deposits in an insolvent institution. As part of the resolution of an insolvent institution, issues arising from the current legislation, which has been in place for some time, have to be addressed. The measures now being putting in place will ensure such a situation does not arise. Recovery and resolution plans will be brought forward and there will be early intervention measures. Even in the event of resolution there will be a clear call on all other available resources so that the likelihood of a call being made on depositors will be much lower in the future than is the case today. We are doing all we can to protect depositors better through these measures.