Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their opening statements and presentations. I had to go to a couple of other things and I was nipping in and out. I apologise if any of my questions have been addressed in my absence.

On Ms Dooley's point about regional development, I am from Dublin but, as a Senator, I went around the country to every local authority from Donegal to Wexford and from Louth to Kerry. Everybody in Dublin wants the regions to do well because if everything happens in Dublin, it puts pressure on housing, schools, open park spaces and football clubs here. People in Dublin would love it if other areas were developing, growing and prospering. If the banks only lend and borrow in a region, how does an area that is deprived, relative to other areas, find the finance in the first place, if there is less money around? Is that a problem for a relatively disadvantaged area? There are parts of the country with loads of money available. How do areas that do not have a lot of money prosper?

Would there be a cost to the Government in setting this up even though it is publicly owned and, if so, how much would be required? Would it be seed capital that would be repaid or would the Government have to put in a certain amount and leave it there?

What impact might the bank have on the credit unions? The commercial banks have not done themselves any favours in recent weeks in their interaction with us on the tracker mortgage scandal. There is a lot of goodwill towards the concept the witnesses are suggesting because people are so annoyed with the discussions and issues they have had with banks about tracker mortgages and lending generally. Could Sparkassen work with the credit unions or would it take a lot of their business from them?