Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

I will speak to the section rather than ask a supplementary question. I do not wish to digress and discuss Anglo Irish Bank bonds.

Deputy Donnelly is absolutely correct in his point about burden sharing with bondholders at Anglo Irish Bank. Nobody really swallows figures such as the €100 million mentioned, but that is not what we are dealing with.

The Minister knows that my party will be voting against the Bill. I do not want to drag this out for too long because it is a sham, as others have said, that we cannot amend the legislation. In reality, the annexes are the legislation; the rest is just the Title and so on. There is one key aspect, the additional €5 billion liability. I would like to tease this out because it is important that we, as legislators, scrutinise the legislation.

From June 2013, the EFSF cannot issue any new bonds and will cease to exist after the last loan is repaid. I am looking at this from an Irish point of view. The Bill will stand on the Statute Book. If the European Union or ECOFIN wanted to agree to allow the EFSF to issue bonds after June 2013, would this require a change in legislation in Ireland? I say this because when I asked whether there was any possibility that the liability we are enshrining in law - the additional €5 billion - would be called in at some point in the future, the Minister's answer was that the ESM would replace this fund and legislation would be introduced. We know that is not a good way to deal with legislation. We introduce legislation for the here and now. I take the Minister's word that his intentions are sincere with regard to what he thinks will happen, but there is no guarantee that the ESM will actually replace the EFSF. We have only to consider the ruling of the constitutional court in Germany; it is clear that the introduction of the ESM would require a referendum in Germany and there is no guarantee the German public would agree to it. There is no guarantee that the Government will get away with introducing legislation without a challenge in the courts which might require the establishment of this facility to be put to a referendum.

I am asking about the here and now. Would an extension of the EFSF's remit to issue bonds post-June 2013 require us to amend legislation, or can the matter be dealt with at a meeting in Brussels, or wherever, by unanimous agreement? Is there any situation where the potential additional liability of €5 billion we are enshrining in law can be called upon in the future, whether through an extension of the EFSF's role without referring to Parliament, or a transfer of liabilities, as mentioned on page 22 of the Bill, to the ESM if it ever applies in law?

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