Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

As my colleague, Deputy Burton has said, this amendment arises from the debate held yesterday evening on the Labour Party amendment to which the Government responded.

When this amendment is approved by the House and the Bill goes for signature and following the decision made in the Seanad last night to approve the Bill, the taxpayers of the country will be providing a blanket guarantee to the Irish banks and not just to the six Irish banks who were initially listed in the Government's press release but, as I read it, to the entire retail banking system since it will be open to any bank with significant retail presence to apply for the guarantee scheme. I hope this works because if it does not work, there are very serious consequences for the Irish taxpayer. The Labour Party sought some assurances about those consequences during the course of the debate yesterday. We consistently raised those concerns over the past couple of days and I wish to pay tribute to my colleague, Deputy Burton, for the work she has done on this Bill on our behalf. However, those concerns were not adequately addressed by the Government which is why the Labour Party stood alone here last night in opposing the passage of the Bill. At no point has the Government been able to tell us the level of exposure to the State of the guarantee now being provided. We were initially told it would be approximately €400 billion which is a staggering amount by any standards and about three times the total national income. However, that total amount referred only to six institutions as initially listed. Last night we learned that it is now intended to extend it to other institutions but we do not know how many more.

The Bill now gives the Minister the power to offer a guarantee of an unlimited amount to banks which will have to be underwritten by the taxpayer.

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