Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

My time has come to speak. There has been an extensive argument about the systemic character of Anglo Irish Bank. While I am not certain that arises in the context of this amendment the debate has partaken of a Second Stage debate.

I want to reiterate yet again that Anglo Irish Bank was a systemic bank at the time of the bank guarantee scheme and its nationalisation because it was a bank with a balance sheet in excess of €100 billion, more than two-thirds of our GDP. It was a bank whose deposit base consisted of in excess of €50 billion worth of deposits as of September 2008. The total number of depositors throughout the world was in excess of 250,000, of whom more than 150,000 were in the United Kingdom. That is a very large number of depositors and a very large amount of money. The idea that the collapse of such an institution by a Government would have no implications for the rest of the banking sector or for the financing of the State, guarantee or no guarantee, is utterly fallacious.

One could argue, as Deputy Burton argued on Committee Stage, that the Government could have opted - it considered this - to nationalise the bank on 30 September and guarantee the other institutions. The only effect of that would have been an immediate requirement on the taxpayer to put substantial funding into that bank immediately. In any event, that funding had to be provided some time later. That is the only material difference I can see.

See this speech in context