Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I refer to amendment No. 14 which relates to section 6(4). The guarantee must be at the commercial rate, a point about which I feel very strongly. There must be no cost to the taxpayer. The Taoiseach stated yesterday that any losses incurred by individual banks would be dealt with by way of levies on the banks. Is there legislation to allow this to take place? If not, does the Minister propose to introduce such a measure under section 5? As section 6(4) stands, there will be a cost to the taxpayer if a bank runs into severe trouble.

The Minister has said he is willing to accept the view expressed in amendment No. 21 and allow proposed measures to be debated rather than laid before the Houses. A due diligence procedure should be carried out in respect of the relevant banks, specifically to find out the prudential value of their loan book. Solvency is a key element. The Minister speaks about liquidity, but we must deal with solvency as well. When the markets have normalised, it is extremely important that the banks should be required to be capitalised to bring their tier one ratios above global norms. I would welcome the Minister's comments.

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