Feargal Quinn (Independent)

First, I wish to state that I have been a customer of Anglo Irish Bank and that I have two property investments that are managed by it.

This is not a welcome Bill, as no one wished to see a Bill that would make the citizens and taxpayers of Ireland the reluctant owners of a bank that was not worth what they were paying for it. However, we do not have a choice in this regard, as the failure of the American Government to rescue Lehman Brothers created bigger problems. Consequently, I support the Bill. However, I am disappointed that Members have not been allocated the requisite time to debate it in a correct manner.

The State will be in the banking business and some of the first words contained in the Bill, "in the public interest", worry me, as I have a concern in respect of that term. The Minister has stated the bank will be run in a hands-off commercial fashion but he would say this. I would prefer to see the bank being run for the shareholders and not necessarily in the public interest, that is, it should be turned into a proper commercial bank. If it is run in such a fashion, it can be sold again in a couple of years' time. I have a fear about any State company which is not necessarily being run with profitability as an objective. The Minister should put my mind at rest in that regard.

We must get credit flowing again. This issue goes beyond Anglo Irish Bank. It touches all the other banks in Ireland, AIB and Bank of Ireland in particular. There has been woolly thinking on bank recapitalisation thus far. The taxpayer consented to recapitalising the banks to get them to lend. However, many banks across the developed world have used this money to restore their capital ratios which also are dangerously low. This confusion must be ended and the proportions in which we expect new Government capital to be divided between new lending, on the one hand, and capital-based restoration, on the other, must be made explicit. A possible formula would be that for every €1 in new capital the bank would be permitted to lend 50 cent to businesses and use the other 50 cent to build up its capital ratios. That is not a necessary proposal on this occasion, but we must find a system to avoid the problems that have arisen elsewhere.