Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I agree. If the Minister has the power to be advised by the Central Bank and we will move into a new regime where we will all be more sensible about our financial affairs, what does he say to the ordinary saver who is receiving a redundancy lump sum, retirement lump sum and so on? These sums are individually small, but they constitute an enormous and important reserve for the Irish banking system. If everybody is charged exactly the same, that is harsh on credit unions because they are mandated to be very careful and limited on where their money can be deposited. I have spoken about an investment bond that could be used by the credit unions with the NTMA. The Labour Party also mentioned other bonds that could be raised by way of a State investment bank.

I want to know about the old system which allowed a bank to act recklessly and carelessly with a business model that was unsustainable. The deposit rates for Anglo Irish Bank are very attractive, yet we will still be bailing it out. How will all these things be married? While we want competition in the sector, we live on a small island and there is a limited number of institutions. We also want maximum safety for the security of the system. Surely the Central Bank, as the Minister's principal adviser on this, ought to be putting this information and rating out in the public domain. Many of the international rating agencies have been appalling. I do not think Ireland deserves to have higher bond spreads than Greece, yet we do. Will there be differentiation between good behaviour and the risky behaviour which stands to make a killing out of this?

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