Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I strongly support the Chairman's views on this subject. While we are on the subject of the banks, I want to remind myself and everybody else that a major issue was tracker mortgages. The banks held the view for a long time that they could not afford tracker mortgages because they were losing money on them, which, of course, was untrue. They were not losing money but, potentially, they could have charged more if they did not have tracker mortgages, so they could make more profits. Other European banks right across the European Union did not seem to have a problem and they were acceptable. We need to find out more information in regard to why we are so different. Is it because we are a small country or because we are not full members of the European Union, which, of course, we know is not true? We should be entitled to the full entitlements that go with membership of the European Union. If they have tracker mortgages throughout Europe, I do not see any reason we should not accept them here.

To go back to the question of reserves and risk, I acknowledge what the Minister says about that, but the risk was created, as the Chairman rightly said, by the banks themselves. They encouraged people to borrow wildly and indiscriminately. It was not necessarily the customer who looked for this. The banks offered them facilities that were above and beyond their ability to discharge.

We are in a situation where, as we proceed into the future, we need to get clarity as to where we are going. Incidentally, given the previous conversation on procurement and how some contracts are filled from inside the State and some from outside the State, I remember having the temerity to inquire into that some years ago and I was treated with absolute disdain. I was asked how anybody could ask a question like that. That is as it may be. We have to do things in the future in a way that is not in accord with what happened in the past. As the Chairman said, we have to account for our activities and what we are doing to protect our constituents throughout the length and breadth of the country.

I am not certain how good-hearted the banking system is going to be towards the credit unions or the post offices. Previously, the post offices needed an extra revenue-generating avenue and, presumably, it will come in the course of the changes that are taking place. I am not 100% certain but I would like to be certain. Similarly, if a third banking force is required, how is it going to come about?

Do we wait for it to happen at the behest of the banks or do we suggest to the Minister and the banking system how they might construct a realistic competitive third banking force in the country upon which the Government and the public can rely? Those are questions that need to be asked and to which we need a response.