Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 4, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “(2) Payments referred to in subsection (1) may be paid out of the Central Fund, or the growing produce thereof, subject to a resolution passed by Dáil Éireann.”.

I still would like to hear from the Minister about what guarantees or protections there are for the Irish taxpayers, who are providing a 100% guarantee, that the banks will not try to profit from this. Can he inform me, with regard to what is likely to be zero interest rate loans, that they will not add a couple of percentage or partial percentage points on top of that? What dialogue has there been? I understand there was dialogue today with regard to guarantee schemes, so I would be interested to hear about that. I would not support the State providing guarantees only for banks to profiteer on the back of that.

This amendment deals with oversight by the Houses of the Oireachtas. It is about ensuring payments, and in the SURE scheme we are talking about payments potentially reaching close to €0.5 billion, and makes the point that they may be "paid out of the Central Fund, or the growing produce thereof, subject to a resolution passed by Dáil Éireann". The issue I have is that there is no oversight of the scheme in the legislation presented to us for what could potentially be a payment of close to €0.5 billion in respect of a liability under this scheme. I do not believe that is appropriate or right. I heard what the Minister said regarding the fact that interest rates would apply if we do not pay within five days and the potential €483,000 that could be called upon. I am not sure what those interest penalties are; I do not think that has been worked out either. However, when the House is sitting it should be a matter of course, if it is not in legislation, that the Minister would accept that he would bring a resolution to the House for payment or partial payment of the funds from the Central Fund to meet our liability. When the House is not sitting, at least a report outlining the criteria should be provided.

Amendment No. 2 is a similar amendment. It is important that we deal with both at this point.

See this speech in context