Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

On mortgage spreads, we also have a very different legal environment here in relation to the ability of the banking sector to repossess a non-performing loan. That has an impact. Look at the difference between the UK and Ireland or between Ireland and other jurisdictions in that regard. That has an impact as well in relation to different interest rates on the granting of new loans. Overall, we need a system in which we have more competition within the banking sector. Ours is a small open economy and we need more banks and more competition within our financial services. That is ultimately the way in which we can play a role in seeing our mortgage market become competitive and more competitive interest rates being offered on new mortgages. When it comes to new mortgages, I believe the gap is a lot narrower than it is in relation to existing mortgages.

In response to Deputy Doherty again, I will not give an inch on his argument and the claims he has made about me. He repeats the idea that I am making this decision for an elite out there as opposed to the ordinary people I represent in Dublin Central or whom he represents in Donegal. It is the ordinary people I am thinking of here, some of whom may actually work for these banks, or the ordinary people looking for future lending to be able to support a small business or to be able to get a mortgage to acquire a house or an apartment. They are the people I think about when I think about what the long-term interests for Irish banking are. That is what I have in my mind. My view is to move to a situation where, given that we have a banking levy that is bringing in revenue in recognition of the contribution that the taxpayer made to bailing out the banking sector, that is a way in which that issue is dealt with. If we were to treat the banking sector differently from a corporate tax point of view from how we treat the rest of our economy, I believe that would be the wrong thing to do. On a very practical note, I used to be continually asked in the Dáil, although I have not been asked this for a while, what I am doing to bring new banks into Ireland and to open up new bank branches. Does Deputy Doherty think that argument would be harder or easier to make if we were to tax banks in a different way from the rest of our economy?