Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his lengthy introduction. I appreciate that this is a particularly busy week for him and it is always appreciated when he has the opportunity to engage with the committee. There is one area of the banking sector I would like to pick up on that the Minister did not quite go into in his remarks. It came up in quite a bit of detail last week during our engagements with the three banks when Deputy Barry asked a number of questions on mortgages and interest rates. We all know that compared with its EU counterparts, Ireland has traditionally had much higher interest rates on mortgages in recent years. While it is welcome that these rates have come down in recent years, I was wondering if the Minister could elaborate, either in his position as Minister for Finance or as president of the Eurogroup, on what impact he would expect the recent rise and surge in inflation, particularly at a European level, to have on this. Are we looking at a convergence between Irish and EU rates in the near future? What other actions might need to be taken in this regard?