Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In reply to Deputy Rabbitte, I was making the point to an industry that employs 55,000 people. I was speaking to international bankers whom we have been trying to encourage to operate and create competition in the Irish economy. We would like to see more funds management and insurance involvement by the banking industry. One of the great selling points of the Irish economy is that more than half of the international banks are based here. There is now more than €1 trillion under funds management in this country. Before attending lunch with the international banks and the IBF, I opened a new wing in Dundrum of the HSBC bank, the Hong Kong and Chinese bank, where there will be a new training and education centre where, in conjunction with the universities, people will be trained to work in the financial services industry, something I have advocated for a long time, and banks will bring their staff, mostly from European locations, to train here.

I made the point that if another industry such as a car company, an information and communications technology industry, or an agricultural co-operative industry makes a profit, people will say it is a good performance because the company made a profit. However, people think there is something wrong if banks make a profit. I have no difficulty saying that the banks should be competitive and charge competitive rates. The best way to do so is to have competition in the market. The bankers I addressed were the people who create that environment, not representatives of just the two main banks in the country.

If the Deputy had an opportunity to read my speech, he would have found it acceptable. I noted over the weekend that the Deputy now thinks all our economic policies, which he disapproved of previously, are now excellent. He omitted one policy, namely, capital gains tax, and he might tell us about that. However, he believes all our other policies are correct. I have no doubt that in the future he will agree with what I said about banks.

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