Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Can Mr. MacSharry explain to his board that the reason we seek this information is that the bank's clients include a cohort of working and unemployed people who were blackmailed during the property bubble into paying extortionate rates for the basic right to have a home as a result of the outrageous racketeering, speculation and profiteering in the housing market to which Mr. MacSharry's previous political party was central? Can he explain that there is a fundamental issue of justice for the victims of that gouging as well as an important economic argument to the effect that the crisis in the economy could be addressed if mortgages were written down to reflect current property values, thereby releasing the significant funds tied up in monthly repayments by ordinary households to stimulate domestic demand? That is the logic of why we seek this calculation. I put it to the witnesses that as a nationalised institution, Permanent TSB should have an ethos which is entirely different from a capitalist institution in the financial markets. Has any dynamic thinking of the kind I have outlined been considered for the real public good in the boardroom of Permanent TSB?