James Bannon (Fine Gael)

Huge damage has been done to people's trust in the banking system by AIB's rip off on foreign exchange transactions, credit card and export dealings. A figure of €14 million is floating around but it could be considerably higher. It is important there is a debate on this issue and that legislation is introduced.

The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy O'Donoghue, will make an announcement on lottery funding and the sports capital programme grants for 2004 today. I have heard from reliable sources that there was much shenanigans and cronyism last night with press releases on the announcement for local election candidates.