Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is not. Deputy Doherty has covered this. That may be what will be contained in the Bill, but it is clear that Bank of Ireland will have a requirement to sell on many of these assets and it is not true to state that all we are looking at here is a transfer from ICS to Bank of Ireland. We are clearly looking at a transfer from ICS to Bank of Ireland to a third party. I cannot think of any regulated entity that will be interested in buying loan books in Ireland. None of them is buying any of the other loan books. Those who are coming in to buy them are the distressed asset specialists. They are the folk from Dallas and from all of those other places. Those folk are getting ready to start bidding on Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB and all sorts of other distressed assets and we know that will happen. As for who will buy them, they will be bid for by the same unregulated entities that are bidding for the IBRC loan book. Whilst it might be technically true on this Bill, it is not accurate to state that all we are talking about is a transfer from ICS to Bank of Ireland.