Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

There is a fundamental distinction between a bond that provided for the repayment of interest advanced on foot of an arrangement with a private investor and a capitalisation arrangement that was approved by the Commission itself. While the position is that the payments are stopped at present, that is without prejudice to the State making its case in the context of the restructuring plan that such preferential payments should be made. On the wider question raised by the Deputy as to the reason the State does not simply rely on the ordinary shares, the return on the preference shares is immediate and tangible, while the return on an ordinary share is a matter of some volatility, depending on the value of the equities in the market over time.

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