Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

It can but, according to the Minister's announcement to date, it will not. If he intends to extend it, as he can, to subsidiaries of banks operating outside the State, there is an even greater reason that we should know what the terms and conditions of that should be to ensure the Irish taxpayer is not left at risk by lending outside this State by banks associated with subsidiaries.

My point is that if we accept that, on a European-wide basis, this gives our banks a competitive advantage, and even within this State it gives the banks, to whom the Minister has expressly stated he will extend this legislation, a competitive advantage over others operating within this State, who is to say in the context of the enactment of this legislation that a bank excluded from its application will not launch a constitutional challenge to it——

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