Professor Patrick Honohan:

That is an interesting point. The other word used by Deputy Boyd Barrett was "profiteering". It is quite interesting. It is true that in a competitive market new entrants unburdened by the past compete with each other and offer lower interest rates. I am sure they could do it. Are the banks "profiteering"? It is hard to say this when one sees that the level of profits is very modest. Up to now it was almost non-existent and previously it was negative. If it is profiteering, who is getting the profit? If one stops to think about this, there are all sorts of winners and losers in this terrible crisis we are still coming out of and it is not obvious that there are profiteers. Where are the profits coming? They are hardly profits at all. The banks are rebuilding capital. To the extent that profits are being made, they are not paying dividends on their equity. All in all, if one starts doing a fairness analysis of what has happened in this massively unfair situation, it is not exactly clear. Who are the shareholders of the banks? Are they profiteering? No; they own nothing of the banks now. Their shareholding was written down by 99%.