Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

To answer Deputy Burton's point, the report of the Governor of the Central Bank arrived last night. The Minister for Finance has to read it, consider it and bring it to Government in the normal way. I made the point that we should use the days ahead for the purposes of preparing draft terms of reference in order that we can make all that information available, including the publication of the reports, and the committee can consider all this, as was agreed in the motion when we set up the banking inquiry process.

I also wish to assure the House it is the intention of the Government to set up that commission of investigation within the envisaged timeframe, arising out of the terms of reference and the discussions that will take place thereafter. We set a timeframe of six months maximum in which that commission should conduct its inquiries and investigations arising from those terms of reference and will return to the House at that stage. The Government's bona fides in this matter is the same as it has always been. We will arrange for these things to be done. The process by which we are going about this is probably the right way to do it.

I refer to the matter of the €2 billion, the increase in the promissory note from €8.3 billion to €10.3 billion. When the Minister, Deputy Lenihan, made his statement regarding recapitalisation of the banks he stated that of the order of a further €10 billion, based on estimates at that stage, was envisaged for the recapitalisation of Anglo Irish Bank. If people are saying that the €2 billion should not be paid in, or that we should not meet the capital ratios set by the Financial Regulator, that would mean an immediate wind-down of the bank and providing a fire sale for that bank's assets with a probable loss of €40 billion and another €70 billion to cover deposits. If people think that is a cheap option maybe they should add up the figures, with the guts of €70 billion - $90 billion on one side, and, on the other, what has to be done at the moment.

The Government is dealing with the situation by trying to minimise, to the greatest extent possible, the exposure of the taxpayer. This development was consistent with the statement the Minister, Deputy Lenihan, read out in March when he came to the House. These are the facts of the situation.

As things stand, the deficit is composed in the main of the gap - of the order of €18 billion - between expenditure and revenues while the cost in terms of the promissory note and the commitment we made regarding Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide is of the order of €1.1 billion. That is until 2011. As Deputies know, the promissory note is about instalments regarding the payment of these moneys so that we can try to manage the situation-----

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