Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

The scheme will not be debated. Best practice is to lay schemes before the Oireachtas and not to engage in debates on individual schemes. I cannot accept amendment No. 2, the purpose of which is to have the scheme debated. On Committee Stage, the Minister, Deputy Bruton, clearly indicated he was unwilling to engage in a further full-blown, policy-based discussion on the temporary partial loan guarantee scheme when presenting it to the Oireachtas. The time for policy-based discussions is during the presentation of Bills to the Oireachtas, not on the presentation of secondary legislation. I understand Deputies were offered the opportunity to contact officials from the Department in the interests of discussing the draft scheme. I am not sure whether, to date, any requests in this regard have been received. To my knowledge, they have not but the matter is open to clarification.

The operator of the scheme is currently running workshops with the banks. The target date for going live with the scheme is August. As soon as the Bill is enacted, we will be in a position to try to ensure we meet this target.

Many of the arguments that have been put forward by Opposition spokespersons were also put forward in the previous debates on the Bill. The Minister has been definitive in the context of replying to those arguments.

See this speech in context