Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Dooley. It can be shown very simply that the financial crisis and the mortgage and SME crisis that came out of it were caused by six years of dereliction of duty by the banking sector. It is mathematically provable the asset price bubble could only have happened with the credit bubble organised by the banking system, and two thirds of the price bubble is on account of the banks. If they caused the problem they should solve it, but they are not doing so. There is no direction from the Government, or any party in the House, to make them do so. It is about time we parked all partisan politics and stopped taking peripheral actions and having national pedicures and manicures with silly referendums on abolishing the Seanad. We should be concentrating on the heart surgery needed in the banking system, so that the 1 million people in households affected by the financial distress caused by mortgage impossibilities are dealt with, and the same is true for SMEs. It is appalling that there has not been transparency, energy or effectiveness. Recovery inspectors should be going to all of the banks and forcing them to do the work. It must be done on a bespoke case-by-case basis and there is no avoiding this. Legislation does not ever solve a problem; one cannot legislate for brain surgeons to carry out brain surgery, and one cannot legislate for banks to carry out recovery work. It must be done pragmatically by people who understand it and who know the language of finance.

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