Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

We are not going to see eye to eye here but the Minister's defence of the banks making €5 billion profit and paying no taxes is that if we make them pay taxes, it is going to be bad for the little people out there. That is just laughable. We need to let them keep on paying no tax on their billions of euro in profit because really what the Minister is trying to do is protect all of us, not the big banks, their bonuses they will get and all the rest; it is actually about protecting the individual. That does not wash with ordinary people. The Minister can try that on but that is not going to wash. His defence is that if we tax the banks, maybe they will pass it on. If that logic exists in the Minister's head, then why not get rid of taxes altogether because, otherwise, all businesses could pass them on? It is just nonsense. There is an issue of equity and equality here. These banks are making billions of euro from high interest rates. People are paying big interest rates on mortgage and if they were in other European jurisdictions, they would be paying thousands of euro less each year.

The Minister for Finance is supposed to be on the people's side, not the side of the banks. Sure we need banks. We need banks that are profitable and lending but, by God, when you are making €5 billion profit, pay a bit of tax. Do what Brian Lenihan said. You should not be able to carry forward all of your losses; you should only be able to carry forward half of them. Every single one of the excuses that Fine Gael put up in regard to why this was necessary is gone. It is not about capitalisation anymore. That issue is gone. It is not about dividends received by us, so why would we do it? That issue is gone. Now the defence from Fine Gael is that we are doing it because we are protecting the ordinary person. That does not wash.

The banks should be making a contribution to the defective building materials scheme. The Attorney General made it clear to the Government that the banks should be making a contribution in relation to that but I have seen no appetite from the Government to ask the financial institutions to put their hands in their pockets for the type of support required to bring a proper 100% redress scheme to people in my constituency and elsewhere. It is absolutely crazy. We are facing into a winter here. We talk about fuel poverty and all of the rest. The curtains are flapping in these houses. The draught is coming through their windows. There are many houses there. The Minister will talk about schemes and the commitments the Government has made. There are people in my constituency who will never be able to rebuild their houses because they will never have the €70,000, €80,000 or €90,000 that is required because the scheme has fallen so far short. Banks, which are going to see - of the ones that are going to be restored - their mortgages and assets restored to the balance sheets, are making no contribution to this at all.