Pat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. As he has pointed out, this is a very technical Bill. It has passed through the Houses without opposition so Fianna Fáil will be supporting this Bill.

The Minister of State is a hard act to follow so I will not repeat anything he has said. As a layman, I will say a few words about the new borrowing arrangements. Interestingly, the new arrangements to borrow constitute a second line of defence to supplement the IMF resources to forestall or cope with an impairment of the international monetary system. Through the NAB, a number of member countries and institutions stand ready to lend additional resources to the IMF.

In January 2021, a reform of the NAB took effect following consent from NAB participants, thus almost doubling the size of the NAB's capacity to €361 billion for the period 2021 to 2025. The size of the NAB was doubled effective from January 2021 and the amount now stands at €361 billion. The current five-year period for the NAB is expected to run from 1 January 2021 to December 2025. To activate the NAB requires support from 85% of the participants eligible to vote. It has been activated ten times between April 2011 and February 2016, with the last time being February 2016. I could continue but there is no point as we all support the measure.