Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Legislation to deal with the matter in question will more than likely be required and will be brought forward to the House. The basic point is about allowing the contingency facility to obtain these bonds on the market, should they be required, by a special purpose company set up at European level. This will enable this facility to be accommodated, underwritten and guaranteed by the member states thereafter.

The taskforce established by the European Council President, Mr. Van Rompuy, will meet for the first time on 21 May. A proposal from the Commission, to be published today, will form an input into that discussion. It was envisaged those discussions of the taskforce would last until the end of the year but it has been asked to accelerate them. The Commission will bring forward its proposals. The matter will then be discussed by the taskforce. The Minister for Finance is Ireland's representative on this.

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