Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for not being here earlier as I was at another meeting, but I have read the opening statements. I have two or three questions I would like to put in general.

We are all very aware of climate change and a lot of people are retrofitting or buying an electric car. What are the banks doing to address this whole issue? People are looking for low-interest loans because the costs involved can be quite prohibitive to put in solar panels. Some people cannot afford to go the whole way.

There were bank collapses in America in recent months with Silicon Bank and First Republic. In Switzerland, there were banks that collapsed. What are banks in Ireland doing to make themselves safe? We have a limited number of banks here in Ireland now and people need to have faith in the banking system. I would like to know what the banks are doing in that regard because we do not want to end up in the same situation.

One issue that was raised with me recently by a small-time builder is that he finds it very hard to get access to finance. He has a number of accounts with different banks. I have a general question in that regard. People are crying out to buy houses, but it is a big issue if a builder cannot get access to finance. Is anything being done to address that?

I know I raised this with the banks before but some businesses raised with me that following the collapse of Ulster Bank and KBC, they moved to other banks and it took about 12 months before they were able to access finance because they did not have a steady accounting system with the banks they moved to. Is that still the case?