Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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That is a legitimate point of view but the banks are now heavily capitalised and one would go through a lot of other assets before this funding mechanism could be triggered. While the Deputy has identified a risk I do not think the risk is very big. Frankfurt is chary of its independence and because of the legal position under the Lisbon treaty, in particular Article 123, the ECB will not get involved in anything that it would regard as monetary financing. It would be challenged constitutionally in some jurisdictions if it did get involved. If it moved into that space it would certainly be challenged in the German constitutional court. Ireland has had long experience of tip-toeing around this when we were trying to negotiate alternative arrangements on the promissory note. The big problem all the time was that the bank was inhibited from doing anything that could be interpreted as monetary financing.