John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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These may be uncomfortable facts. I am not putting any onus on Mr. Crowley or saying that it is his fault. I am asking him if, within that tough banking sector, someone would introduce a conversation about those involved conducting themselves properly, whether in the courts, directly in repossessions, or in a one-to-one with individual customers. We are talking about changing the banking culture to centre attention on the customer. My background is very small business. My customer was king. I think it is incredible that we have Mr. Crowley's organisation, the Central Bank and this new body under a judge to tell a business that it should think of its customers and to change the culture of how it treats its customers. That tells me that the behaviour of businesses up to now was obnoxious in many cases. Maybe, as a representative body, the Banking and Payments Federation might say to the banks that they had a good shot at it, are getting good profits and are not being taxed, and as part of this changing culture, they should not wait for two years. He might ask the banks if they will do something that will send a clear signal to everyone that, while they are interested in making a profit and there is no issue with that, they are going to treat things a little differently with regard to correcting the system or customers' issues from the collapse.