Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 38: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the comments of a person (details supplied) of the European Central Bank expressed in an article that Ireland's taxpayers must share the pain. [9703/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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While the opinion piece in question was headed "Ireland's taxpayers must share the pain" the bulk of the article dealt with the author's views on a number of issues in the area of banking supervision and crisis resolution. The piece is one of a number of recent public statements by the individual concerned in connection with Ireland. There was for instance a lengthy interview with The Irish Times in January last when he set out his perspective on, amongst other things, the events that led to Ireland availing of the EU-IMF Support Programme. The author laid the blame for our current difficulties on the policies pursued by the previous Government and the failures in regulation of the financial sector it had presided over. The current Government is determined that Ireland will rectify the public finances in a way that is fair to taxpayers and citizens and that will enable Ireland to continue to meet its obligations. I do not support the author's inference that Irish taxpayers somehow deserve the austerity that is now necessary to put the country's finances on a proper footing. We are acutely conscious of the serious impact on our citizens of the unprecedented measures we have to undertake which are designed to restore our country's economy and reputation as quickly as possible.

On banking matters in particular, the Government is taking decisive steps to address the difficulties in the Irish banking sector. In my Statement of 31 March last, I announced the significant reorganisation of the domestic banking sector with the creation of two pillar banks. This will be accompanied by the significant recapitalisation of the remaining institutions well in excess of currently accepted international norms in order to provide complete confidence in relation to the stability of the remaining domestic institutions.

Deputies will be aware that the ECB has welcomed the recent stress tests assessing the capital needs of Irish banks and indicated its support for the Government's commitment to ensure that the capital needs of the institutions are met in a timely manner.

Finally the article also suggests that the integration of independent prudential supervision at European or at least at Eurozone level may well be necessary development to address the issues that given rise to the current difficulties in the financial sector. While there is no doubt that there has been a lot of convergence between Member States in the area of financial supervision, there is no appetite across Member States as a whole at this stage for a single EU Regulator. It is worth bearing in mind that the de Larosière Report specifically stopped short of such a recommendation and the Commission's proposals did not include any such provision. The most important issue at this stage is to ensure that a system is established to provide greater oversight of the financial system. The European Systemic Risk Board and the European Supervisory Authorities will achieve this.