Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

The Minister would like to have us believe he has no role, yet he told us we must pass this legislation before 4 October because the State must say the fund is in place to insure the losses before the sale to Mutual Liberty goes through. Deputy Noonan should not pretend that he, as a Minister for Finance proposing legislation that will affect hundreds of thousands of policyholders by increasing their premiums, has no role.

The Minister is insisting on passing legislation that, over the next ten years, will demand the payment of over €700 million by Irish policyholders, yet he does not know whether some of the money is to pay off an Anglo Irish Bank bondholder who may not be guaranteed by the State. The payment of the bondholder is central. This is not just an incidental occurrence. When the Central Bank found out that the subsidiary of Quinn Insurance Limited, Quinn Property Holdings Limited, posted its assets, worth €464 million, and secured this to a bondholder, it then said the insurance company was behaving recklessly and put it into administration. The bondholder is a central player on this stage. For the Minister to tell us he does not know whether this is an Anglo Irish Bank bondholder, while he has been trotting about since March stating such bondholders should be burned and there needs to be burden sharing, is not credible. The Minister should have done his homework if he expects people to take this legislation in any way seriously.

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