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

-----in which case, the taxpayer would be back to square one, carrying all the risk of our banking system. I thought we had put that behind us. I thought that debate had been won.

Both Deputies asked me about the decision on the banking levy and Ulster Bank and KBC. I wish to emphasise my thinking behind it. The levy is calculated and comes due to be paid in October of next year. At that point we will have two banks that are getting ready to go. That will create further incentives for them to look at how they might reduce the number of current accounts they have. I am eager to avoid that happening. I want to see an orderly transfer of a very large number of current accounts to the remaining banks that we have. I believe if we had left the bank levy in place as it is now, it would have created incentives to accelerate an exit from the Irish market, which would have had consequences that I want to avoid.

The only upheaval I am now interested in is not the upheaval of the banks, because they have decided to go; but is the upheaval that will be involved in more than 1 million people seeing their bank accounts change. While I am concerned about Deputy Boyd Barrett and the choices he will need to make, I am sure many banks are enthusiastic and wondering how they will get his business. I am a bit more concerned about the 1.2 million other accounts that will be changing and the fact that if that is not advanced by the time we get to the point where this levy is calculated, it creates further incentives to minimise the levy and exit the market.