Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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My comments on section 2 will connect with amendment No. 5 to section 3 for the purpose of following the debate. The concern which I raised on Second Stage is that section 2 confers on the Minister the ability to do "[a]ll such things as are necessary or expedient to be done for the purposes of the State's performing its functions under the Loan Facility Agreement". Section 3 states very clearly that the funds paid from the Central Fund shall not exceed, in aggregate, a sum of €1.815 billion. There are, therefore, two sections referred to and I am not sure which is the most dominant. One states we cannot pay out more than €1.8 billion, while the other states the power to do everything the Minister needs to do to fulfil the agreement is conferred on him by virtue of section 2.

Regarding the agreement which is tagged onto the Bill in section 24.2 of the Schedule, it is stated clearly under the heading "Specific review" that "a specific review of the Key [where the €1.815 billion the State must or may pay is calculated ] and the maximum aggregate amount made available by all Participating Member States under their respective loan facility agreements shall occur at the latest by the end of 2017, and in any case if a Member State not referred to in Schedule 2 ... becomes a Participating Member State". A review of the Key is, therefore, built into the agreement. What we do not know is whether the Key will go up or down. It is likely that it will only go one way, given the common view that there will not be enough money if any bank gets into trouble. If the Key were to increase, however, section 2 would confer on the Minister, as is stated the power to do "[a]ll such things as are necessary or expedient to be done for the purposes of the State's performing its functions under the Loan Facility Agreement"? That is my concern about this section. The Minister of State will see that amendment No. 5 would introduce another safety mechanism to make sure any amendment to the Key would require Oireachtas approval.