Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes. A three line answer from a Minister to state he will not go ahead with retrospective recapitalisation is not sufficient. We need a report to be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas as to the options on the assets we hold in our financial institutions and why we have closed down one of the options available to us. We had countless debates, and rightly so, on the sale of our shares in Aer Lingus, which were a tiny fraction comparable to the assets we hold in the banks. People no longer view the banks as assets, they see them as liabilities, but they are still assets. However, it has just been stated in reply to a parliamentary question that we will not go down the road of one of the options available to us to get some or all of our money back because it has never been tested. This would require the Minister to lay a report and state the information in a detailed and considered way. In my view the finance committee should discuss all of the options and it should not just be left to the Minister to state we will not go ahead with this and that we might sell shares in the market at a future time.