Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

They want a government that will be careful and will approach banking, as it does ever other issue, in a tough-minded way. The mistake the Minister is making is that he believes that bondholders cannot discriminate between investments made in banks and investments made in a sovereign state that is determined to manage its affairs effectively. That mistake underlies the Ministers' approach.

We are making an enormous decision in this legislation, one involving €54,000 million, €34,000 for every family. One would expect that a cost benefit analysis would have been produced. For a project that is less than one in 2,000 the size of this project, the Minister requires that a detailed cost benefit analysis must be prepared. Where is the cost benefit analysis for this project? Where is the White Paper? If a defence policy initiative was proposed, a White Paper would be prepared outlining the pros and cons of it, the costs and the benefits and the reasons it is proposed. Where is the White Paper on this proposal or any of the evaluation of the potential threats, risks and downsides of this as well as the potential benefits? No such analysis has been provided. All we have is 11 pages from a consultant who was hired by the Minister to provide a consultant's report. We have not even seen his full report.

The chief executive of the NTMA was kept out of the loop and therefore did not have an opportunity to evaluate the proposal. The Central Bank has not offered any evaluation of the proposal. It has said that it backs it without any evaluation. Where is the hard-nosed evaluation that we would expect on even modest policy proposals showing the risks and the benefits and the analysis of the alternatives outlining their benefits and downsides? Instead we have been treated to highly polemical and political attempts to discredit any alternative. I have been exposed to it, as have other parties. We have heard of fantasy banks.

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