Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am simply explaining that the model being used by the Government is in line with guidelines that have been outlined - the toolkit, as it was described by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel - in respect of the initiatives Governments need to take to ensure a greater degree of market certainty, to identify the level of impaired assets and to park those assets so the banks can have access to funding and credit on wholesale markets and thereby provide the finance people need in our domestic economy. That is the purpose of our method of dealing with this issue, which is in line with the guidelines set out by the EU.

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