Promissory note law ‘so general it could be limitless’

An emergency law giving the minister for finance power to spend “possibly limitless” sums of public money supporting financial institutions via promissory notes was so general it could mean the minister intended to “save a village credit union or Anglo”, the High Court has heard.

The minister was given “carte blanche” by the Credit Institutions Financial Support Act 2008 to act as he chose and not told, for example, whether he should consider whether such institutions were insolvent, said John Rogers SC.

“All the act says is there is a financial crisis, deal with it, and the way to deal with it is to throw money at it,” said Mr Rogers.