Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

The Minister has until March to make his submission. Will this be discussed by the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service and will the Opposition have a say? Our view is slightly different from the Minister's, unless he has changed his way of how he does business. Up to now the Minister does not seem to want to go after the bondholders. This is a discussion paper about a fairer way of dealing with bank debts, not just the taxpayer taking the burden which has been the Minister's policy to date. Can I take it that the Minister might not necessarily agree with the Commission that bondholders should take on more debt-sharing in the future? We think they should. Will there be an opportunity to discuss this at the finance committee and will the Minister take advice on it? Will the Opposition have an opportunity to give its views to the Commission or will it just be the views of Ministers? This needs to be properly thought out and hopefully it will not be needed in the future, but it might be. If it had been in place, taxpayers would have been saved a lot of money.

Will the Minister be recommending that in future the bondholders will take more of a hit and the taxpayers a lesser hit? This is not his current policy and I ask him to clarify the position.

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