Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)

I believe I am in possession. During the election period we attended meetings arranged by the Irish League of Credit Unions. Its members spoke very cogently and strongly about the burning of bondholders. I received correspondence today from a credit union, where it is argued that credit unions invested their reserves in deposits and bonds of Irish banks, losing 14% in funds as a result of haircuts applied to a number of junior bonds in Irish banks. It is pointed out that in the current discussion of further burden sharing, it should be remembered that not all bondholders are well-heeled speculative investors. That is a significant point. Credit unions are bondholders and they include hard-working citizens around the country. We must keep everything in context.

The bank guarantee scheme was also mentioned and it is worth reminding Members that Fine Gael supported the introduction of the scheme.

The Minister, Deputy Noonan, stated, rightly, that part of the entire project of continuing to recapitalise our banks is to keep our money transmission systems and everyday trade and commerce working and ATMs functioning. That was said also by Deputy Brian Lenihan when he was Minister for Finance. Both clearly said as much, the Minister last Thursday. The purpose of the bank guarantee scheme was, in the main, to protect depositors who were like the credit unions throughout the country. There were billions of euro on deposit in this country. If we had allowed the banks to collapse that night in September 2008 there would be a different situation to tackle today. From that point of view this was a decision taken at a certain point to try to rectify the situation. It was upheld subsequently by Professor Honohan who conducted an in-depth analysis into it. We must continue to remind ourselves about the background of the people who examined the situation independently at the time and came to an adjudication.

The Minister's statement also reaffirmed the State's commitment to the EU-IMF programme for funding. When my party was on the Government side of the House we received all manner of accusations in that regard, "economic treason" and the like. The Government is in that space now but we will not go down that road. We will be consistent and responsible in our role in Opposition-----

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