Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

That was based on the understanding that it was easy to get money provided that one entered into an agreement to pay a very high interest rate on it. There is not much difference between it and sub-prime lending, because the banks advanced the money on the understanding that it might not be that easy to get it back and therefore charged a significantly higher interest rate. It would be nothing short of disaster if sub-prime lending took hold in Ireland. We are told it is minimal, but I do not know if that is correct. I know that when billions are circulating in the banking system, the banks will take the opportunity to make more money. I hope this legislation will guarantee that young people are protected from sub-prime mortgages. In effect we are protecting people from themselves. It is the dream of every couple to own their home and if there was a possibility of getting a mortgage, even if it was more expensive than normal, they would be likely to go for it. It is important to prevent that. The people with the grubby fingers in the banking fraternity will make money and do not care too much about the anxieties impossible repayment rates create.

The National Treasury Management Agency, which handles our national debt, has performed extraordinary well and I have great time for it. We are quick to knock organisations when they do not do things right, but in fairness the National Treasury Management Agency has done well in funding the local authorities, the courts section, the universities, the Railway Procurement Agency and Housing Finance Agency. I often wonder why the National Treasury Management Agency did not have a great involvement with the National Roads Authority. I cannot understand why that agency, rather than the public private partnerships, cannot get involved, given the significant resources at its disposal. A greater part of the national road network would be completed if this had been the case. I think I speak for the Minister of State and most of my parliamentary colleagues when I say that whatever happens, I do not want the Government or the European Union to lay a hand on the basic principles that have made the credit union movement so powerful and important to ordinary people.

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