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

We were told some aspects were agreed but it seems they are not.

Am I correct that the preference of the Commission is to reprivatise the banks, which the Government is busy doing? I understood from the beginning, when nationalisation of the banks was required as a result of the financial collapse, that the position of the European Union that we might have to nationalise but at no point should nationalised banks depart from a commercial profit-orientated focus. That has had bad consequences for mortgage holders. I do not understand the logic of it. I want to understand the extent to which this preference is imposed on the country. I have no doubt that the Government wants to do that anyway because that is its ideological predisposition but I would like to know why the European Union favours the reprivatisation of the banks given that these institutions nearly bankrupted Europe and did bankrupt this country. Having nursed them back to health at a terrible cost, Mr. Martínez Mongay thinks we should set them up to potentially do it all over again to us and that they should have the power to crunch on credit and not invest in particular sectors. He said we need to invest in particular areas of infrastructure, which is great, but now the people who have all the money might just say they do not want to invest in that area or they do not want to extend credit. What is the logic of that? After what happened, it is a perverse logic that, having bailed these banks out, the preference of the EU is to reprivatise the banks. I ask for an explanation please.