Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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Does Mr. Sibley agree with the proposition that there is an implicit State guarantee and effectively an implicit public subsidy to private banks as a result of having banks that are too big to fail which we obviously saw in practice in this country in the course of the last decade? A recent study concluded that the total implicit State guarantee for private banks within the EU is €240 billion. Does that not contradict the point of a private, free market andlaissez-faire system because in reality if a bank becomes too big to fail then not only will it not be allowed to fail but investors also know that it will not be allowed to fail and in effect the bank has a subsidy which also serves to benefit the existing big banks in the market as opposed to new entrants?