Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Carrigan and his colleagues for their opening remarks and responses to questions to date. It is appears to me that this is part of the new architecture being put in place and we are really not 100% sure it will work, but we hope it will. It appears to be a reasonable attempt to deal with what we have been through. In layman's terms, it appears the €55 billion or the €1.8 billion compartmentalised for the first eight years is effectively an insurance fund. Mr. Carrigan may not wish to use that term but it is a fund which can be dipped into in the event that things go badly in the bank. I would love to have an insurance on my house that I only have to pay for eight years. It appears illogical to me that we are not committed to a constant percentage of funds on deposit. If I have money on deposit, is it reasonable for me to contribute 0.5% or 0.1% to be absolutely sure my bank remains viable? Why is it stopping after eight years? Is this an arbitrary timeframe in that we will have €55 billion by that stage and that is the fund we regard as reasonable? We need to get the fund up and running but thereafter is it not reasonable that banks would continue to pay perhaps a significantly reduced amount to this which would continue as an insurance fund, in effect, that they can ultimately call on?