Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I say "Well done" to the four delegates, Brendan, Bernard, David and Myles, for taking up the cudgels as they have done in the past two or three years. Some of them have done so only recently, including Mr. Duffy.

The Irish banking sector is a very messy place to be in. We are talking about the overview of the financial sector. In September 2009 I first exercised myself on this issue here and looked at the six Irish owned banks and their balance sheets, loans and deposit ratios. At the time Irish Nationwide Building Society was at a figure of 154%, AIB at 155%, Bank of Ireland at 161%, the EBS at 167%, Anglo Irish Bank at 195% and Irish Life and Permanent at 300%. This tells the story of how the mess occurred. There was a five-year turbo-charged trajectory of credit, coming from bond investors, as well as interbank money from abroad supplementing thin capital bases and two small depositor bases, for the size of loans being made. Over a five to six year period these loans and this money created a turbo-charged overpricing of all assets - business and household. Now the banking industry is stating - now that it has all burst and the tide has gone out - it is entitled to collect all of the loans it made, 100%, for assets that have disappeared.

Let us take, for example, the AIB situation. There is nothing personal in this, as I admire the delegates for doing battle on this issue. However, the board of AIB and the boards and senior managements of all the other banks deserve to be caned for their ignorance or downright recklessness in causing a lost generation of financial galley slaves. What has happened is wrong. Deputy Higgins spoke the truth when he said the losses of the banking system should have been brought to the bond investors and the euro system that had refinanced the bonds because Anglo Irish Bank had received €24 billion in three tranches of pro-note support and money to pay off bondholders. AIB also got euro system ECB money and Central Bank money, as did Bank of Ireland.

I have a few quick questions because my time is limited. AIB tells us the provisions on its gross loans are €16.7 billion, including specific and general provisions. What are the total loans in the group for which these provisions have been made?