Seán Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)

It would be difficult to put the amendment into effect, given the terms and conditions under which a bank can get into trouble and the way fees and sanctions can be applied. There is an extensive matrix of the type of problems that a financial institution can get into. Some of those difficulties have not yet been defined. Similarly, the sanctions that can be adopted by the Minister, including fees, levies, interest rates or shares, and whether a bank can effectively afford to pay for it at all, entail many different options. To set out all of those terms and conditions would be an impossible task.

I agree with the exemption of section 7, which concerns the Competition Authority, from the amendment because swift overnight action would have to be taken if any bank got into difficulty. However, the Bill is not being put forward on the basis that banks are in difficulty. Various Members, including Deputies Noonan and Higgins, asked if solvency is the reason for the Bill, but I do not believe it is. I am sure the Minister will confirm that the whole purpose of the Bill is to deal with inter-bank lending and the ability of the Irish banking system to lend on international markets so that it can lend, as Senator Obama says, to "main street" Ireland. In that way jobs, business and the economy generally can continue. We will do the best we can to come out of the situation in which we find ourselves, so that we can resume economic growth as soon as possible.

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