Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I oppose the section. It amounts to yet another bailout for the banks. If there was a 50% restriction it is because the Government recognises, notwithstanding its decisions to endlessly bail out these financial institutions which have wrecked the economy, that the amount of the losses they incurred, because of their own actions, that could be written off against tax in future years should be restricted. Now we are saying that after everything they have done we are going to give them another bailout. It is extraordinary that we would even consider it. It is the public which is recapitalising the banks.

That links into the wider question of our failure to achieve the stated objective of the Government, which is to get some help from the European Union in the retrospective recapitalisation of banks to lift that burden off us. It effectively entails writing down some of our liability for the debts of the financial institutions.

That is what we should be doing. However, this measure means the public is yet again bailing out the banks. I find this unconscionable.