Loans to Ireland Bill

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.””" Clearly, we will not be required to report if no payments are made within subsection (3)(a), and if no sums under subsection (3)(b) are received as payment, or if"““no amount of principal or interest in respect of an Irish loan is outstanding at the end of the period.””" Subsection (5) states that the clause will cease"““to have effect…if no report is required to be prepared in relation to the relevant period ending with 31 March 2016””" The shadow Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Alan Johnson), tabled amendment 1, which helpfully suggests that we broaden the information that should be supplied in Parliament. I believe that the Government would have supplied such information anyway, but the proposal prompted us to consider the matter carefully and to reflect on it, in the spirit of bipartisan co-operation that has characterised most of the debate. Amendment 1 would require the Government to report on the original term of the loans and any amendments to it, as well as payments made, sums received and amounts outstanding. As I said, I would have expected our reports to cover those points, and for us to include the duration of the loans and—in reporting outstanding liabilities—their remaining terms. We accept the principle, but as I know from my experience as an Opposition spokesperson, Opposition Members do not have access to the full array of drafting skills that Governments have. That hampered my drafting of amendments previously, and I am grateful that I now have those resources to call upon. We therefore tabled manuscript amendment (a), which achieves the same effect as amendment 1, but more clearly.