Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In terms of the Minister of State's contribution, I cannot help thinking of Frank Sinatra singing: "And now, the end is near; And so I face the final curtain." The Minister of State referred to "as soon as is practicable" and "the first quarter of 2013" in his contribution. How long will the process of disengagement take? If we start it in June 2013, how long does the Minister of State believe it will take to complete and under what conditions will it be deemed appropriate to end the scheme? The Minister of State said it is being worked on but can he give the House more detail on that?

Last Friday, I attended a conference in Dublin Castle on the Irish Presidency and the first session was on the economic and monetary union, EMU, and the banking union. Some presentations called for a measured bail-in for creditors, the need to have risk-sharing mechanisms for big fiscal costs, and the need to resolve legacy problems quickly. I may be going off on a tangent and there is little point in rehashing old arguments but I ask the Minister of State to outline how the extension of that scheme would fall into the moves being made at EU level towards a central banking system. Will he give some detail on that, especially the proposals on supervision, bank resolution, and deposit guarantee schemes?

I said Sinn Féin would be short and sweet in terms of our position. We will not support this measure, and we opposed it in the other House today. I would like more information on that, especially in terms of the wind-down and given that the Minister of State and the Department are hopeful it will be wound down as soon as is practicable, hopefully in the first quarter of next year. I would like more information on the form that process will take, the banking union, the bail-in of creditors and other such issues and what that will mean for us. Many people are disenfranchised in terms of not getting the deal on the banking debt and the sovereign debt that we want. It is all well and good to hear we are a special case but people want to see action. I ask the Minister of State to make some comments on that.