Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

It is important for the Minister to remember that international best practice on the way to deal with a banking crisis has evolved since he first hatched the NAMA approach. At that stage, examples of recovery banks were not plentiful but now we have a very good example of a recovery bank that is even being reported on the national airwaves. Bank resolutions that separated good from bad and made the professional investors pay for their bad decisions were not plentiful but we have now plenty of examples, including Northern Rock, Washington Mutual and Bradford & Bingley. They are approaching the matter in the way Fine Gael has suggested, namely, separating what is important from what is not and protecting only what is important. Prominent people such as Joe Stiglitz, Paul Romer and Willem Buiter are now supporting the type of resolution we are proposing, as is the big investor, George Soros. Even the European Commission has said to the Government that it is wrong to say that bondholders cannot be forced to take a hit. In the case of Anglo Irish Bank it instructed the Government that it must not pay interest on the-----

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