Mr. Gary Tobin:

It is certainly the Government's view that a money message is required, for a variety of reasons. The Bill will have significant costs for the Exchequer, both directly and indirectly. We have grave concerns about the Bill and its potential implications for the banking sector and financial stability. We believe that we will need extra resources to assess, on an ongoing basis, the implications of the Bill. We tend to agree with the Central Bank that it would be appropriate that an ex ante, independent impact assessment of the Bill should be carried out. We have set out, in quite a lot of detail in our submission, the costs that will arise as a result of the Bill.

There will be additional costs for the Central Bank and the banks themselves. There will be a substantial amount of additional financial implications for the wider economy, not least the potential impacts if, for example, compensation was to be claimed against the State by individuals who felt that their property rights were being interfered with.