Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

We all agree that we must pull together in assessing and measuring the situation. Last Thursday, we received a full and honest presentation from the Minister for Finance regarding the report prepared by New York's BlackRock Solutions, suitably adjusted and edited by the Governor of the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator to allow for a presentation on the up-to-date position of the viable banks after restructuring. BlackRock parked to one side two of the moribund banks that are being wound down. Loan losses estimations were made for the banks that would become the two pillars. The amount of loan losses recognised resulted in estimated capitalisation requirements of €24 billion, including €3 billion of contingency funds. This was the starting point of an action plan, added to which was the statement that there would be a review of the overall regulation and operation of the banking sector, including at Department of Finance and other supervisory levels.

Getting across this restructuring plan to all of us in three weeks is commendable. It is the starting point for introducing a closer and more focused examination of the six banks in terms of asset evaluations and estimations, a double checking, as it were. If we do this, it may transpire that we must adjust a little bit more for the further losses that I and some others would suggest are to be found in Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide. When the full picture becomes clearer, we can present the composition and amount of funding in the six banks, most of which comes from the ECB and our Central Bank.

The losses that have arisen in the banking sector are probably in the order of €90 billion to €95 billion. The foreign institutions that supported the banks that created those loans that resulted in the losses participated in what some journalists have been calling in recent days "Ireland's party". The institutions that invested in our banks' bonds benefited from that party, received interest from the bonds and, apart from subordinated bonds, have seen them redeemed to the extent of €60 billion without any cost. This issue ought to be reviewed and represented to Europe and the ECB. We are all on the same side, namely, the side of the Irish people. The opportunity for us is to present this report card truly, fairly and in a balanced and reasonable way to Europe. It is like when jigsaw pieces are presented so that a viewer can join them and the answer becomes obvious. That is what we should do. The result of the election is tantamount to a referendum, as only 20 seats remain in the hands of the Government parties from the previous Dáil. In itself, that is a startling fact to present to Mr. Trichet, Mr. Rehn and Mr. Chopra. We have had a referendum so we can now arm ourselves with facts, present them coherently and explain the provenance of the unsustainable loan losses that Mr. Noonan very intelligently and diplomatically raised in a shot across the bow when first meeting European officials. That is the challenge for us all so we should rise to it.

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