John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I am asking Mr. Crowley to take into consideration that, from my experience with the banks, and more recently with the very public experience that we had on the tracker mortgage issue, that the old culture in the bank is alive and well. Dogs resemble their masters, as they say. In any business, the master should be telling the next person down that this has to change. That seeps out to their legal representatives and so on in the attitudes that they express on behalf of their banks. It is time to call out the banks again and to say that enough is enough, since they are continuing in the same vein that they were in.

As far as Mr. Crowley's organisation is concerned, he might disagree with some of the comments I have made, but he should take on board that some of them are true and borne out in the media daily. I wish him well in changing the culture in the banks. It is extraordinary that so many organisations have to be put in place to tell a business that the customer is king. It would frighten me to think they would ever get back to normality, given what they did in or previous to 2008. That is all I am saying and I would love to hear a voice from Mr. Crowley's organisation ticking off its members when it deems them to be out of line and far away from a basic moral compass that one would expect a business of that size to have, while understanding what has to be done in the marketplace to retain staff.

I will only say this in the context of corporate social responsibility and Mr. Crowley can pass on my comments. Banks do all sorts of things in local communities, on which they are to be congratulated, as well as on the manner in which they bring information to small and medium enterprises, SMEs. I would love to see all of it being made clear. They need to emphasise the downside in taking out a loan, as well as the upside, in order that the enthusiastic entrepreneur knows fully what the issues are and that the person seeking a loan understands what all of the small print means. The tracker mortgage issue exposed the fact that, in many cases, people did not understand what they were signing, did not have an opportunity to test it with a solicitor and were encouraged along the way. That happened during the crash. Banks understand banking language and, as much as Mr. Crowley translates legislation for bankers, they should translate their language for the basic consumer or customer.

Now that the banks will not be paying taxes for a long time, they might have a unit to look at their corporate social responsibilities and be a lot more generous in funding initiatives related to health and dealing with marginalised individuals and families. That would tell me that they were thinking about society and their effect on it. They have had a very negative effect on society, families and individuals. There are many cases in which people died by suicide and so on and their stories have been told. The banks should respond in a positive way by acknowledging all of this. I am not taking issue with what Mr. Crowley said.