Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

No, it is not, which is the answer to that question obviously. It is obvious that, as has been said by Dr. Somers, we are in uncharted territory. It is necessary for us to bring forward what is a very important and complex piece of legislation. It is necessary in the interests of trying to restore the sort of credit in the system that we need to see and to get businesses back up and running.

It is not a bad bank model, as the Deputy has suggested, because it obviously takes in all loans, including performing loans. We need to make sure that we do that properly.

On the third point in terms of the proposal, as Deputy Gilmore said, the Minister for Finance outlined in his budget speech the decision in principle to proceed along these lines. I can assure the Deputy that the NTMA is a part of the decision making process in that regard.

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