Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

When the Dáil passed the Financial Measures (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009 earlier this week, the Minister for Finance promised to bring a scheme before the House in regard to the extension of the financial institutions guarantee scheme. I do not want to raise details of the IMF report before that debate takes place, but the report points out that the guarantee will potentially cost the taxpayer €35 billion, more than all the taxes that will be collected this year, if the Minister is lucky to get that much. I will repeat a question I put to the Minister on previous occasions. Will the scheme be brought to the House before the recess? Will it be introduced before the NAMA legislation?

In regard to the NAMA legislation, will there be a White Paper setting out the structure of what the IMF predicts will be one of the most costly guarantee schemes in the world? The IMF points to the history of Japan and its lost decade-----

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