Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If I made my answers shorter, we might get through them more quickly.

Before he became President of the European Commission, Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker was a strong supporter of Ireland in respect of the European Council's 2012 decision on the question of bank recapitalisation and naming Ireland in that regard, a decision to which the now President of the European Council, Mr. Donald Tusk, was also a party. It was a game-changer in its own right in so far as it allowed for the breaking of the link between bank and sovereign debt. That will not apply again in the future, as happened in Ireland’s case. It was what happened in Ireland, and the negotiations that followed on this complex issue, that led to that decision by the European Council to break that link, which will apply in the future. As the former Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade said, that decision was a seismic shift. Deputy Martin asked me why I did not raise this with Mr. Juncker and Mr. Tusk. Obviously I did when we needed their support in respect of getting that European Council decision which named Ireland.

What are we looking for in this regard? We are looking for the best deal for the Irish taxpayer - namely, to get back as much money as we can by whatever deal can be done. As the Minister for Finance has pointed out on numerous occasions, other options can be considered. One is recapitalisation as per the Council decision. The banking union and the mechanisms to deal with that are in place, so we can consider whether it is appropriate to lodge an application for recapitalisation. The second option is to consider what can be done with the restructured domestic banks such as Bank of Ireland and AIB. The moneys that went into Anglo Irish Bank are gone and cannot be recovered from that particular black hole. The Irish taxpayer put €4 billion into Bank of Ireland and got back €6 billion while still owning 14% of the bank. What does one do with the taxpayers’ 99% shareholding of AIB? How does one value it? Is it a better proposition to sell these shareholdings off rather than lodging an application for recapitalisation, which requires unanimous support from EU Governments?

See this speech in context