Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

First, I take this opportunity to share my sympathies and those of my party with Deputy Pearse Doherty, who lost his father suddenly in the last week. This is a sad time for Deputy Doherty. Ar dheis Dé go raibh anam an Uasal Uí Dhochartaigh.

Some of the Minister's backbenchers have been enthusiastically telling the world that the scheduled payment of €3.06 billion to IBRC, which was due to take place on 31 March, did not, in fact, happen. Of course, the Minister and I know different in that regard. It would be interesting and important for the Minister to put what exactly happened on the record. Is it not the case that the IBRC was paid this money from NAMA cash reserves, which are in essence, public money? Is it also not the case that subject to the approval of Bank of Ireland's board the money will then be reimbursed to NAMA by Bank of Ireland and, in turn, Bank of Ireland will hold it for 13 years and the Irish Government bonds to which the Minister referred in his statement will be repaid by the State in full? What happened on 31 March was that the State did pay the IBRC €3.06 billion but from a different source than was originally intended.

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