Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

There is no proposal to establish what Deputy O'Donnell described as a toxic bank. No such proposal is among the options being considered by the Government. The position of the Government is that the Cabinet has been briefed in an informal way about the nature of the options involved. The Government's consideration of this matter has not gone beyond that and, as I indicated in my reply, I will be bringing proposals to the Government in due course following a detailed consideration of the report from the NTMA and Dr. Bacon.

The Deputy asked about the position of the banks. Discussions have not been entered into with any of the guaranteed institutions or other institutions on any formalised basis in regard to this. I cannot and am not briefed to answer in regard to what contacts have been made between Dr. Bacon and-or the NTMA in the context of the preparation of his report. It may be that he has made informal contacts with different financial institutions for the purpose of assembling the information and making the assessments he makes in his report.

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