Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Approximately a dozen other EU countries also recently extended their guarantee schemes to 31 December, including Austria, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Sweden is often mentioned by some Members of the House in terms of how one should try to deal with a banking crisis. The guarantee applied in Sweden was for about four and a half years.

It is important to point out that the State has earned approximately €1 billion from guarantee fees from those who have participated in the scheme, a point of fact which I am glad to put on the record.

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