Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will respond to the concluding comment made by Deputy Doherty. It is a well-proven technique from Deputy Doherty and Sinn Féin to put words in my mouth that I did not say and then attack me for making an argument I did not make. At no point in my argument did I say the banks should never pay tax at any point in the future. I have never said that. However, I did say that, given Deputy Doherty's acknowledged criticism and his point that mortgage interest rates in Ireland are too high and banks need to do more to lead to more homes being built, given my point, which he did not acknowledge, that a massive change is under way in the Irish banking system and the three banks that would be subject to this amendment will have to go through considerable change in the future to deal with the exit of two other banks from the country, and given the need for those banks to be able to lend to deliver more homes and, I hope, reach a point where they will lend more cheaply, the acceptance of this amendment would be counter-productive to realising those goals. That is not an irrational argument. It is one based on trying to make progress on other matters that are important to the people I represent.