Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I would like to deal with a number of points raised on which the Minister might provide clarification. In the context of the review being carried out by the IMF of the balance sheets of the banks, will the Minister indicate what further recapitalisation he expects the banks will require? What are the amounts involved? Will the banks require more capital and will it come in the form of extra borrowing by the State that would be put directly into the banks and would basically become part of taxpayers' borrowings?

Will the Minister give us a breakdown of the fund and the make-up between what will be banking debt and State debt or public debt - we have heard various figures mentioned - the total breakdown, the rate of interest, the period of time over which it will happen and the make-up of the funds provided by the European Commission, the IMF, Sweden and Britain and the terms of those loans?

What discussions are involved in the bank resolution scheme? We have heard that there are differences between the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund on how to deal specifically with bondholders in a banking resolution scheme. Will the Minister indicate if he is aware of those differences, how are they being manifested in negotiations and what he expects to be the outcome in terms of a bank resolution scheme? When will that be in place?

Our party leader, Deputy Enda Kenny, put various questions to the Taoiseach today about bringing forward the budget. We were told by the Taoiseach this was not possible because we are still in November and tax returns are still coming in. It should be pointed out that when Deputy Brian Lenihan became Minister for Finance, his first budget was delivered on 14 October 2008. It was a very early budget and much earlier than what was proposed today. That was the budget for 2009, so there is a precedent for introducing an early budget.

The bulk of income tax revenues for November are in and the Minister is well aware that people filing manually must pay their income tax by 31 October, and those filing through the revenue online service, ROS, must pay by 17 November, which is almost a week ago. I expect the figures to be available because of the sophistication of systems in the Revenue Commissioners. One can compliment the ROS, which has been immensely successful for collection. I expect that the figures for income tax are available to the Minister for Finance.

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