Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I will get to that point, Deputy Donohoe. Of course, if one wants to understand the thinking behind the IMF-EU diktats, what one needs to look at are the ECB's guiding principles for asset support schemes in the section under governance from 2009. This is what they say and it is worth reading.

A guiding principle pertaining to the governance of asset support schemes, which refrain from outright nationalisation and which should be borne in mind even if nationalisation become necessary, is that after receiving public support the institutions should continue to be run on the basis of business criteria; to the extent it is possible the preservation of private ownership is preferable for several reasons. These include in the short term the high costs involved in nationalisation - could the cost possibly be any higher than the cost incurred by ordinary people in this country? - and in the medium term the risk of banks' objectives being diverted from profit maximisation to alternative goals that might distort the market structure and jeopardise the level playing field. These are the guidelines that inform the IMF-EU deal and their diktats have been carried through in this Bill to deal with the banking system.

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