Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Morgan as a chuid ama a roinnt liom chun déileáil leis an cheist ríthábhachtach seo. Ceist é nach bhfuil tacaíocht ag an Rialtas: níor sheas sé i dtoghchán, agus níl sé sásta seasamh i dtoghchán chun tacaíocht a fháil don chinneadh atá sé tar éis glacadh agus atá sé ag glacadh inniu. Is scannal é sin, agus tá sé ag tógáil céim mhídhaonlathach inniu, go háirithe toisc go bhfuil an Rialtas ag ceangal an oiread sin de thodhchaí an Stáit seo le dul chun cinn na mbanc agus leis an sealúchas atá tar éis dul isteach i NAMA go dtí seo.

It is rare that I speak on finance motions. In a way, like many other citizens, I found it difficult to get to grips with the full scale of the horror that emerged when the banking crisis began to unfold.

Like many others on the left, I raised the fact that the State and its economy was dependent upon the property bubble continuing and that such was not a position that could be sustained. Two years on from the initial emergence of the crisis, I want to give the two Brians, Deputies Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan, a lesson in the real world to put into context the giveaway or present that they are giving to bankers and property speculators. The sum of what is intended here is that they are bailing out the banks, through a nice present of taxpayers' money, to help them recover from speculation.

I remember when people invested in eircom shares and many of them got burnt and there were cries for bailouts and help at the time. I was not one of those who believed that a bailout was realistic in that case because I, and the thousands and others who bought eircom shares, had gambled. We took a punt on shares on a market and as one is always told, there is a possibility of losing money or of gaining money. The same can be said about everyone who gambled in the property market and on bank shares and who are now looking to be bailed out. The Government is bailing them out and giving them guarantees. I will deal with one such group, for instance, the subordinated bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank.

The debts of Anglo Irish Bank include the investments of subordinated bondholders. Anglo Irish Bank, and hence the taxpayer, owes that group €2 billion at a conservative estimate. Those bondholders took a risk when they invested, of which they were fully aware and which they had taken day in and day out in other institutions for many years, and they earned high rates of interest during the so-called good times. They gambled, they lost and they should have dealt with it, but the Government stepped in and gave them a guarantee. When that guarantee is up in September, I believe that is the end of it. They should suffer the consequences of their loss. They should have suffered it when the loss occurred, but rather than that, we gave them a guarantee. That is an ongoing scandal, but there are many others.

The Chair of Anglo Irish Bank, Alan Dukes, thinks that it is alright to hand out taxpayers' hard-earned money to those risk takers who, themselves, helped create the financial mess we are in. He also suggests that it is alright for the Government to pay increases to selected employees in that bizarre dysfunctional bank. It is bizarre considering that this is the bank that should have been closed, lock, stock and barrel, two years ago, and it should still be closed today. There is no reason for us to bail out a dysfunctional bank.

Nobody in the Government called a halt at any stage, or even attempted to rein in the obscene property speculation that went on for many years. The Government facilitated it by giving tax breaks and reliefs to those gambling with the economy's future. It facilitated the banks gambling on a three-legged horse. When that horse fell at the first hurdle, the Government expected us, the taxpayer, to suffer the consequences. Those in banking circles and the Government, meanwhile, were too busy congratulating themselves on the so-called success of the Celtic tiger to care about the ordinary people and their future.

Their future now is repossession. I have heard Members on the Government benches claim home repossession is not occurring when Dublin City Council recently made repossession orders against people in its affordable housing scheme who cannot meet their repayments. Banks are calling in clients telling them they will repossess their property unless they start to pay off their arrears. Those are arrears they have been landed in because the Government has no job creation policy. Up to 500,000 people are unemployed and cannot afford their mortgage repayments. Where is the bailout for those who are paying over the odds on interest rates for fixed-rate mortgages on what were overpriced houses? Where is the protection and bailout for those in arrears? Their future and that of the many young people who will leave university later this year and the unemployed will be poverty and emigration.

It is a pity the Minister for Finance is not in the Chamber to tell us what his representatives in AIB were doing yesterday when they gave the two fingers to mortgage holders and small businesses with loans with an interest rate hike. Now with its majority shareholding in the bank, does it actually suit the Government to get more money out of the taxpayer this way? Does the Government intend to oppose any future interest rate increases by AIB and the other banks it controls? Or will the taxpayer get the dividends he is due in worthless bank shares?

The Government is seeking another blank cheque for the banks. Earlier, the Minister for Finance gave this and that vast figure, figures more like those used in Monopoly and difficult to comprehend. He finished his speech with a promise that even more taxpayers' money, not just that announced today, billions of euros, will be used to bail out the banks.

We must also look back at the some of those property transactions in question. The Irish Glass Bottle Company site in Ringsend, before the Dublin Docklands Development Authority became involved, contained a viable and functioning company which made an annual profit of €40 million. The workers at Ardagh Glass created the profit for the company, who earn a wage on which they pay taxes and spend in the local economy. Yet all those workers were sent to the dole queue, a signal of what was to come.

The Minister of State with responsibility for housing, Deputy Finneran, is in the Chamber. He will know Bernard McNamara was mentioned earlier. Many people in Dublin city had much hope in Bernard McNamara because he bid for many of the local authority housing scheme regeneration projects. He was also one of the speculators who has had to step aside with the crash. The Government has not stepped into his place to recreate the hope many inner city communities in wasteland estates such as St. Michael's, Inchicore, Dominick Street, St. Teresa's Gardens and Dolphin House, had of a return to what they once were - thriving communities with businesses and homes. The Minister should visit the wasteland with no hope that is South Hill in Limerick because he and his Government have dashed the hopes of regeneration for thousands of families.

The Government refused to step in to nationalise SR Technics, a viable company making millions of euros which had previously been a State company thereby guaranteeing 500 jobs. It would have been saved at a fraction of the cost of some of the bailout paid for the minor banks.

Since this crisis began two years ago, we have been presented with an opportunity to create a State bank to support small and medium-sized enterprises. To date this opportunity has been ignored. Every day small businesses across the country go to the wall with their employees becoming dependent on the State. A simple economic lesson from this is that if people get back to work, they earn money, pay taxes – even at the penal rate the Government has in place for the low paid. They also spend money which boosts employment in the retail sector and means the Exchequer wins with increased VAT and employee tax returns. This, in turn, allows more money to be invested in public services which means everyone wins in the long term.

Instead, the Government's model is to have fewer people in work with less income to the Exchequer while giving more money to the banks. This creates a cycle whereby more unemployment is created. Unless this cycle is broken, we will go further down the hole the Minister and his cronies have dug.

The economy needs to be refocused on policies of equality, job creation and investment in education. If we want to come out of this recession, we must create a sustainable and viable knowledge-based economy. We never properly invested in education. Doing so now will give a return of a knowledge-based economy. Such investment also needs to be coupled with investment in broadband infrastructure, our public services and in repairing the roads and water services networks. Investment must also be made in energy security. We can no longer depend on imported energy, particularly when our natural resources in the Corrib gas field are sold to a foreign company, making us bid for them against England and the rest of Europe. We need a solid base and proposals have been made in regard to the Spirit of Ireland. If invested to the hilt, this proposal would cost less than what the Minister proposed today to bail out Anglo Irish Bank.

We talk about the property crisis in Ireland. Apartment blocks and estates are in receivership up and down the country. These are now in the State's possession yet people are homeless and thousands of people are on local authority housing lists. There is no logic to having apartment blocks sitting empty for two or three years when people are in overcrowded, cramped and unsuitable accommodation. The economic model is wrong and the Minister needs to change it. This needs to happen now; otherwise, the Minister will send us further and further into the black hole he has dug.

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