Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Yes. I thank the Minister for Finance for his reply. His statement confirmed that the Labour Party is right to try to identify the extent of taxpayers' exposure to this crisis. We are attempting to enlighten the Members of this House and, more importantly, the citizens of this country about the nature of this extraordinary and historic deal. As I said previously, the Labour Party supports the broad thrust of the Government's strategy, in so far as it involves trying to protect the integrity of a banking system that provides capital, loans and deposits to business people, so they can pay the wages and salaries of employees. We are keen to support those who wish to buy homes to live in, as opposed to those who are buying houses for the purposes of speculation. The Minister has flatly rejected a Labour Party amendment which was tabled, as a conscious measure of support, to bring a framework of equity, certainty and clarity to this scheme. To date, the explanation of the scheme has been no more than a simply drawn sketch. It is unprecedented for any legislation before this Dáil to give the Minister such vast legal powers. The House is being asked to accept the word of the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan. I do not doubt the Minister's bona fides as he attempts to do his best on behalf of the citizens of this country. However, I question the competence of his predecessor, Deputy Cowen, when he was Minister for Finance and since he was elected Taoiseach. I have doubts about the Taoiseach's ability to deal with the magnitude of the crisis we now face.

The Minister for Finance indicated that the liabilities of the six institutions mentioned yesterday, as valued by the National Treasury Management Agency, is €440 billion. The assets of the institutions have been valued at €520 billion. That leaves a surplus of assets over liabilities of €80 billion. We have not been given an indication of the measure of the valuation of those assets. Do the valuations include significant volumes of assets which result from lending offered by the six institutions in question? Two or three of the institutions have loaned significant amounts of money to the construction industry for the purposes of purchasing land at speculative prices.

One of the difficulties with giving the Minister a blank cheque is that it can invoke what economists and philosophers like to call the law of unintended consequences. The Minister has just given the House an example of that law as it applies to the comments made in this House yesterday by him and the Taoiseach. They asked yesterday to be given a blank cheque to deal with six institutions with a rough net asset position of €80 billion. Tonight, the Minister has said that the guarantee is potentially available to all applicants.

See this speech in context