Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Does the Minister understand that the banks, the covered institutions, are partially bankrupt? Some of them may be wholly bankrupt. He has mentioned the Governor of the Central Bank, his own Department and the regulator. Does he have confidence that these institutions have served well in this crisis? He said he had paid a minimum of €2 million to Merrill Lynch and up to €6 million for its advice. I still cannot figure out what it advised him to do. It would have been better if he had read the newspapers in Ireland; at least, he would have received more advice. He paid €3.8 million to PricewaterhouseCoopers for stress-testing exercises which, to be honest, were mathematical mumbo jumbo. Credit from the banks is frozen and many of their assets are impaired to the tune of more than 80% of their book values. The Minister's reference to book value sounds like a cleverly written lawyer's formula for going soft on the valuation issue. In other words, he values assets high and the taxpayer takes a hit of up to €50 billion. That is what Professor Patrick Honohan said at the joint committee, and there is a man who knows a lot. Can the Minister come clean with the House?

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