Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

There is no question of NPRF money going into Anglo Irish Bank, if that is the consideration. As to the other consideration that the Deputy mentioned concerning derivatives, this issue first came up when Deputy Rabbitte spoke on radio on Sunday. It was conveyed as being a revelatory matter. In fairness, whatever point Deputy Rabbitte was seeking to make, it was cleared up by the Governor of the Central Bank yesterday in his interview. This emphasises the need for us all to try to deal with these matters in a calm, measured way. We do not want a situation in which people do not have confidence in the system we have. We are talking about strengthening the system, providing more capital to it, engaging in more re-organisation of the system and bringing forward legislation that will provide for that. Let us do that in a way that, for the benefit of everyone going forward, we will have a banking system in which our people will know their deposits are safe.

As to the question of looking to problems, we are dealing with all of the problems that have been identified as they have been identified. The Governor of the Central Bank gave some reassurance in respect of this matter yesterday. It is incumbent on us all to try to raise issues that need to be raised, but let us raise them in a calm and measured way and deal with them on a factual basis.

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