Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Anglo Irish Bank has been put into the shade by Fianna Fáil, which wants to pretend it does not exist. In telling us the bank is conducting its business at arm's length on a commercial basis, what does the Minister of State take us for? As Deputy Bruton stated, the bank is on a drip feed from the taxpayer.

The Government, by not wanting to include Anglo Irish Bank in the legislation, has only succeeded in muddying the waters further. We believed we had at least established that those who had the pension income levy applied to them would now have the pay cut applied to them. We want the Minister of State to say "to them and to them only". It is very important that he do so. The Minister of State is retracing his steps and saying the Minister of State, Deputy Pat Carey, was wrong about what he said about the NTMA in his speech this morning. The Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, stated the staff of the NTMA had the pension levy applied to them, but will not have the pay cut applied to them.

The only progress we have made on clarifying who falls within the ambit of this legislation has now been withdrawn by the Minister of State. It would appear there are cases where the pension levy applies but not these proposed pay reductions. For the life of me, I cannot think of what kind of people have a link to a potential pension scheme. Everyone, potentially, has that link but it is a meaningless definition.

The Minister of State has given us the facts of his thoroughbred background and no one on this side of the House questions his pedigree.

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