Ireland to okay "bad bank" on Nov 12

DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Irish government expects the law establishing its 54-billion euro "bad bank" to passed by parliament on November 12, the minister in charge of coordinating voting said on Sunday.

Shares in Allied Irish Banks (ALBK.I) and Bank of Ireland (BKIR.I), which will transfer loans to the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), fell sharply this week after Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said the launch of the scheme could be delayed by protracted debate in parliament.

"The markets are ... watching us and there are people complaining we are not moving fast enough," the government's Chief Whip Pat Carey said.

The shares rebounded later in the week after Lenihan sought to reassure markets, saying the legislation was on track to be enacted by "mid-November," allowing NAMA to meet a deadline to start transferring the biggest loans by the end of the year.

"We're hoping, I am expecting it will be wrapped up and completed on November 12," Carey, who is a junior minister in Prime Minister Brian Cowen's own department, told public radio RTE.

The bill, which passed the so-called "committee stage" in parliament in the early hours of Friday after days of meticulous debate on hundreds of amendments, will be debated further in the lower house on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

It will then pass to the upper house where it can be amended further, than back in the lower house for a final vote on November 12, Carey said.

To become law the bill also needs the signature of President Mary McAleese, who has few powers and rarely objects to legislation, though she has the right to refer it to the Supreme Court, which would cause some more delay.

(Reporting by Andras Gergely; Editing by David Cowell)