Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I will endeavour to stay within the parameters laid down by the Ceann Comhairle.

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this amendment. Some of what I will say is as relevant to amendment No. 1 as it is to other amendments tabled. What encapsulates the concern of Members of this House is that the Bill is essentially a skeleton that must be fleshed out. Other speakers have correctly described it as an "enabling measure". The meat in the measure is in the context of the supports to be provided to banks in circumstances in which we hope liquidity is restored, depositors feel they are no longer at risk and, to use the strange term that is applied to markets, "sentiment" improves, whatever that means.

Deputy Burton's amendment proposes that the legislation will not come into operation "until the Minister has published and laid before each House of the Oireachtas for its approval full particulars of the terms and conditions under section 6(4)". The problem with this legislation is that this House is not party to what terms or conditions the Minister might specify. We are told that a scheme will be laid before each of the Houses and will come into operation, if it is not annulled, within 21 days.

Section 6(6) reads as follows:

Without prejudice to subsection (4), the conditions under which the Minister provides financial support under this section may include conditions regulating the commercial conduct of the credit institution or subsidiary to which the support is provided, and in particular may include conditions to regulate the competitive behaviour of that credit institution or subsidiary.

The difficulty is that the conditions which the Minister can specify are entirely at large and entirely within his discretion. They may be very well advised conditions to protect the taxpayer or to ensure the continued economic good health of a particular banking institution. They may be conditions that relate to the terms under which an institution is entitled to borrow. Indeed, to refer back to an issue raised earlier, they could be terms and conditions which restrain the circumstances in which banks can foreclose on those who owe them money. I do not know the parameters of the terms and conditions.

We should approach this legislation in a responsible manner to try to bring some degree of sanity to what is happening in the markets and to release liquidity to businesses that need it. I do not have any principled objection to this legislation and, like my colleagues, I am prepared to rely on the fact that the Minister has received the best advice possible and that he recommends this legislation to the House. What I am not prepared to do, however, and what is not constitutionally appropriate is to write a blank cheque for the Minister. In circumstances in which a Minister can specify terms and conditions, it is appropriate that the legislation prescribes the parameters within which those terms and conditions may be set out——

See this speech in context