Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

Yes, I believe we all bear responsibility, obviously including in particular the Ministers who were in power at the time, as well as the regulators and board members of those banks. I note that it was very much the great and the good, that is, the well-regarded in our society, who were in such regulatory systems, on such boards and in the political systems. Yes, there was widespread failure to recognise the scale and damage that the bubble was going to cause.

As for Anglo Irish Bank and INBS, I am glad we brought some clarity to the effect that the good bank approach was not the right one to take. I believe it would have distracted from the more important task of getting as much value back for the Irish public from the remaining loans, as they are wound down and sold on, to minimise the damage and loss that will accrue to the Irish taxpayer. This is the task on which the management there now must concentrate and I believe this should be done as quickly as possible with the least cost and least use of resources and the maximum possible return from the assets.

In respect of AIB, which obviously was one of the main subjects of the Minister's announcement today, from the outset of this process, it always has been certain that the Government would seek to socialise the profits in any recovery from our banking system, as well at the losses. It always was certain that the Government would try to redress the balance sheet somewhat in the public interest by taking a stake in our banks with the prospect and intention of selling such a stake into an open market as soon as is possible to be able to realise some of those profits. This always has been the policy and there never has been an instinct within the Government to look away from that possibility, to rule it out or not to expect it as a possible or likely outcome. The Government now must do this and must ensure that it manages an institution such as AIB with a majority stake in public ownership in a manner that allows the bank to regrow and to recover a profit for the Irish taxpayer.

I said to Deputy Dempsey yesterday that the Labour Party had been postulating that we need to take money from a pension reserve fund and put it into a new bank to help recovery. I argue that, in a sense, that is what we are doing today with AIB. We are taking money from our pension reserve fund and putting it into the bank as capital with a view to having it lent to the Irish market. That may be a more effective method of getting a bank lending than trying to reintroduce a new branch and lending structure across the country, which would take time and could be more costly. I would be interested in hearing the Labour Party's response to this. The concept we have is correct, namely, using the reserves we have to capitalise the bank and to ensure the existence of a new banking culture so we will profit from the money invested.

Critically, we need a change in banking culture. It is right that the culture is changing from the top down and that we have new boards and management. The public lack of trust in Irish banks is serious. Banking requires trust. I have said for some time that we need new boards and management and that it will take time to achieve this. We need them to restore trust in Irish banking.

There are good people in Irish banking. I do not contend the 80,000 people working in our clearing banks should not be able to advance their careers and set out on a new banking course. I refer to those who have an eye to cash lending rather than property banking, with which our banks became obsessed, and to those who want to understand that banking is about personal relationships and the assessment of personal risk. If I were a lender, it would be a case of my determining whether a person such as Deputy Noonan has the capability to turn something around and make a go of it, and has the strength of character to pay me back if he runs into difficulty. This is the kind of banking skill people need.

We need a new culture, particularly in AIB because it is one of our largest banks. We need to get it working.

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