Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The position on the second matter to which the Deputy refers is to see whether a consensus can emerge from the committee on the best way to proceed. Fianna Fáil members on the committee have brought forward a substantial submission in an attempt to assist in that effort to build a consensus. However, as the Leader of the Opposition stated, the Government has not yet come to a conclusion on the matter and is waiting to see whether the committee can arrive at an agreed way forward.

The scheme relating to the financial guarantee will be brought before the House as soon as possible and practicable. Deputy Kenny will be aware that the Minister for Finance is attending an ECOFIN meeting today, that he attended a Eurogroup meeting and that he met the EU Competition Commissioner last night. The Minister had a very constructive meeting with the Commissioner. What he is doing is informing the preparation, which is at an advanced stage, of the scheme and the framework being drafted. Based on the briefing issued on foot of these meetings, an effort is being made to examine ways we can assist in dealing with any queries the European Commission may wish to raise in order to address all of the matters outstanding.

Institutions outside the six named banks may wish to make applications to be covered under the scheme. We will give consideration to those applications but we cannot reach conclusions in respect of them until we identify the terms and conditions that will apply to such institutions and then discover whether they wish to proceed on the basis of agreeing to those terms and conditions. The situation is evolving. We are trying to obtain and provide a complete picture.

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