Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

The cost is not €74 billion but €47.4 billion. One can think of it as a mortgage. A person making monthly mortgage repayments has a capital as well as an interest payment element. The interest represents the cost of borrowing, while the capital payment diminishes the debt. The Deputy is adding the interest rate cost of €16.8 billion to the €47.4 billion, but it is contained within it as the interest element. The table provided gives the capital reductions in the last column and if these figures are added to the interest rate payments in the first column, one is left with the figures in the middle column, the repayments on an annual basis. This is another issue we inherited when we went into government. This was the way arrangements had been made to fund Anglo Irish Bank. It is like an extremely expensive IOU. Nobody doubts how expensive it is.

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