Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 42: To ask the Minister for Finance if the profits derived by the Central Bank of Ireland from Irish Bank Resolution Corporation's emergency liquidity assistance repayments are kept in full by the Central Bank of Ireland or shared with the other central banks in the European system of banks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9956/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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One of the functions of the Central Bank, similar to other central banks, is to grant Exceptional Liquidity Assistance or ELA to a credit institution when this is deemed necessary for financial stability purposes. These amounts are published monthly. The Central Bank cannot disclose the financial institutions that avail of such support although it is open to all eligible counterparties to apply for such funding. ELA is one of the ways that the Central Bank has responded to the financial crisis. This is distinct and separate from regular funding operations carried out for monetary policy implementation purposes through the ECB. A loan provided to a credit institution under Exceptional Liquidity Assistance is granted against suitable collateral, where suitability is in line with unpublished criteria defined by the Central Bank. As with procedures for ECB eligible collateral, appropriate haircuts/discounts are applied with a view to ensuring that the Central Bank would not suffer any loss in the event of default on the loan assistance. The Bank has received formal comfort from me as Minister for Finance such that any shortfall on the liquidation of the collateral will be made good. Further details on ELA is available in the bank's Annual Report for 2010 in Note 1(v) and Note 20 (iii) on pages 93 and 104 respectively.