Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman. The debate so far has moved along utterly predictable lines. It is somewhat surprising to see so much Dáil time given to a debate on the economy given that we discuss it in more detail and in a more specialised way every week. The reason for it is quite simple, namely, that we are now in an election situation and this is the type of framework in which the Government wishes to operate for the next year, which will give it an opportunity, from time to time, to embark upon a kind of propaganda and media frenzy which it hopes will lift it into an electoral victory in 2016.

Having said that, it is only fair to make some concessions to the Government parties for the situation in which they landed themselves in 2011. They were unlucky when they came into power in that they inherited the worst economic situation in the history of the State, as Ministers constantly remind us. They had a mountain to climb, which was left to them by their predecessors. They were willing to do that, in accordance with their duty as public representatives. They won the election and inherited the poisoned chalice. They were unlucky, too, to face regimes at the ECB and in government in Germany which would not countenance any let-up in austerity. However, it also is true that the Government pandered to the desires of the bureaucrats in Brussels. Indeed, much of what this Administration has done and for which it is now claiming credit, if there is any credit to be claimed, was dictated not by it but from Brussels.

The Government is saying now that it has done extraordinarily well in a very short time and quoting figures to us which are supposed to prove that. While this Administration was unlucky initially, as I said, there is no question that it has got lucky recently. A lot of the extraordinary export and growth figures we are seeing is down to two factors, namely, the strength of the dollar and the strength of sterling. Those factors explain, to a great extent, why our growth rate is higher than that in the rest of Europe. It is, in short, because of our dependence on the United Kingdom and United States for exports. We have exploited that situation very skilfully and there is great credit due to those companies whose exports have increased by up to 10%, according to figures released this morning. That is a superb performance by our export companies but it has come about largely because of the happy fact that the dollar and sterling have been so strong and the euro so weak. That has absolutely nothing to do with the Government.

On the assumption, one can only presume, that the dollar and sterling will remain at the same or similar rates into the future, the Government has made some extraordinarily brazen forecasts which go out to 2020. That is madness and nobody has confidence in those forecasts. It is not that there is any suggestion of deliberate dishonesty but simply that nobody believes for a moment that it is possible to forecast five years ahead. We cannot tell what is going to happen in that timeframe and it is simply not feasible to base an economic strategy on that type of assumption. However, that is exactly what the Government is doing. We are now seeing the beginning of an auction politics based on fantasy figures which will go on for up to a year. It is the oldest trick in the world and what Fianna Fáil has always done. It is what all governments do in an effort to be re-elected. Those on the other side of the House who championed austerity and fiscal rectitude and claimed to stand for balancing the budgets, not exaggerating growth and avoiding extravagance are breaking their own ideological declarations by making forecasts which are bogusly optimistic and over which nobody could stand. The simple fact is that the lucky factors upon which the forecasts are based are reversible. Is the Government telling us the dollar will not fall by 10% in the next ten years? Is it telling us it can predict what will happen with sterling and the euro? It simply cannot know any of that.

In the declarations he has made, the Minister for Finance has spoken very eloquently about the proposed privatisation of Allied Irish Banks. The State owns 99.8% of AIB and the Government is determined, for some reason, to raise some of its funds from the privatisation of the bank. This proposal should be subject to a serious reconsideration in the light of what we have seen in recent days. If the Minister decides to privatise AIB, he is undoubtedly giving the green light to a new cartel in Irish banking. Despite what he is saying, we have seen for ourselves in the past few days what is happening in the sector. Ulster Bank, Bank of Ireland and AIB, which is owned by the taxpayers, have given the Minister the two fingers. They have all told him either to wait, which is a euphemism for "go jump in a lake", or simply that they will not take their boot off the necks of standard variable-rate mortgage holders.

How can we allow people and institutions that behave in that way to be freed out to persecute their customers in the way in which they are doing? Already, with the Minister in charge, they are defying his wishes. Even with the State as a 99.8% shareholder, he is being told AIB will do what it likes. That bank has decided to continue to screw its share of the 300,000 customers with standard variable-rate mortgages if it so wishes, and the other banks have followed suit. What we have here is a cartel encouraged by a Government policy based on a strategy of having two pillar banks. That policy created a duopoly. Duopolies become cartels and cartels take on the customer. It is not worth raising the small amount the Minister will get from AIB if it means having to allow these people to run amok in the banking and financial jungle which awaits them out there. He must take a lesson from recent days. He must take these guys by the scruff of the neck and tell them he will not tolerate their stance and they must reduce the rates.

The Minister had an absolutely heaven-sent opportunity in the past two days to do exactly that when he cast his vote at the AGMs of Bank of Ireland and AIB. That vote was influential in the case of Bank of Ireland and absolutely dominating in the case of AIB. He chose to vote for the re-election of the entire bank board in both cases, including members like Richie Boucher and Archie Kane at Bank of Ireland and David Duffy at AIB. Worse still, he voted for the payment of these people's remuneration.

It must be asked if he is in their pockets.

The chairman of AIB was given an increase of 33% over his predecessor last year. Imagine the Minister voting for a non-executive chairman of a bankrupt bank to get a 33% increase while others who that bank is persecuting - 130,000 of them in that case - are being fleeced. The Minister wants to approve an increase for the person at the top while this is going on. That is completely unacceptable. In the Bank of Ireland's case the Minister appears also to have voted for a €490,000 package for its governor. That is €10,000 a week. The AIB chairman is only getting €1,000 a day, which the Minister approved, while the Governor of the Bank of Ireland is getting nearly €10,000 a week. A stop must be put to that and if the only way to do that is to stop the privatisation, the Minister should stop it.

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