Loans to Ireland Bill

Baroness Primarolo Excerpts

Wednesday 15th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

I beg to move manuscript amendment (a), page 2, line 16, at end insert—

‘(d) the remaining term of each Irish loan which is outstanding at the end of that period, and

(e) the original term of each Irish loan in respect of which a payment was made by the Treasury by way of an Irish loan in that period.’.

[The Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Dawn Primarolo)]

With this it will be convenient to consider the following:

Amendment 1, page 2, line 16, at end insert

‘, and

(d) the original term for any Irish loan and remaining terms for any outstanding Irish loans.’.

Amendment 5, page 2, leave out lines 17 to 26.

Amendment 2, page 2, leave out lines 18 and 19.

Clause 2 stand part.

[Mr Hoban]

In dealing with the issues emerging in Ireland, we have sought to keep the House informed as much as possible about the progress that was being made as the crisis emerged, and the role that the UK Government felt they should play in helping to resolve it and responding to the Irish Government’s request for help at the end of last month. We have done that through statements to the House and the publication of the Bill last week, and to aid debate, we ensured that before today’s debate started a copy of the loan agreement was placed in the Vote Office. I hope that hon. Members will recognise that we were not able to place the summary document in the Vote Office earlier—or, indeed, to place the full signed agreement there—because negotiations are still ongoing with the Irish Government. However, the principles that have been agreed were set out in the summary of key terms.

I think hon. Members would say, “Well, it’s all very well that you’ve been transparent and open in the run-up to the loan process, but what’s the next stage? Are you going to be transparent during the life of the loan? How are you going to keep the House informed of what’s happening, whether the Irish Government are drawing down each of the eight tranches, how far they’ve got with repayments, and so on?” For that reason, we decided that there should be a clause to deal solely with reporting. It states that the Treasury will

“prepare a report about Irish loans and lay it before the House as soon as practicable after the end of that period.”

The first period will end on 31 March 2011 and a report will be published for each subsequent six-month period. The clause states that those reports will include details of

“any payments made by the Treasury by way of”

the loan, and details of

“any sums received by the Treasury in that period by way of repayment of principal or the payment of interest”

and

“the aggregate amount of principal and interest in respect of…loans which is outstanding at the end of that period.”

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Cash]

Perhaps a little bit of irritation, which is not usual in my case, is beginning to burgeon, because a number of questions that I tabled weeks ago about the legal advice regarding the stabilisation mechanism still have not been answered, and when I use the word “stonewall” I mean just that. When I do not get an answer, and I am told that I will get the answer as soon as possible but I still do not get it, and I have to put in a reminder but I still do not get it, there is something going on; I know that. They do not want to disclose the legal advice; they do not want even to disclose whether in fact it was given, or when it was given. I would like to know the answer to those questions because as Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee—

[The Second Deputy Chairman]

Order. This is an intervention. It is a very long intervention. The hon. Gentleman has clarified what he meant by stonewalling, but perhaps we might leave the considerations about the European Scrutiny Committee for another day, because it is not particularly relevant to the amendment that we are discussing now.

[Mr Hoban]

It is right that the duty to report is extinguished when there is no principal outstanding, and that is the purpose of subsections (4) and (5).

I hope that, with that explanation, hon. Members will accept manuscript amendment (a) and will not seek to press amendments 1, 5 and 2.

Manuscript amendment (a) agreed to.

Clause 2, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 3

Short title, commencement and extent

Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.