Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, but let me say in a friendly way that the Minister misled the committee earlier on because the point is that there are tiered-down, waterfall systems where bondholders will be burned in the first instance and then the fund that is made up of banking contributions - the SRF - would be used. However, after that it is taxpayers' money: it is contributions from the ESM to the SRF that will flow into the financial institutions. The Minister gives the impression, maybe by accident, that no taxpayers' money would be used and that the difference between the banks is that it would be all banking money. That is not the case. It will be paid back to us by the SRF within a three-year period but before that initial three years there will be a flow of money from the ESM which is capitalised through contributions from member states. As the Minister mentioned, it will be in excess of €800 million from Ireland, with larger contributions from other states depending on the size of their economies. It is an important point around the accuracy of what we are dealing with. It is a tiered structure. The legislation allows for the ESM to lend to the SRF and sets out the conditionality in relation to that in terms of when the SRF would have to pay back those funds to the ESM. However, it is a case where taxpayers' money, albeit at the very end of the line, can flow in to financial institutions. Therefore, returning to the point that I was making earlier, if that is not triggered I do not see an issue in terms of conditionality but if it were to be triggered there is no conditionality on the banks.