Ned O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

As it is, he has achieved a lot since that day at the front door.

As far as the Press Gallery is concerned, I have to say that I have gotten on well with every journalist here. If something happened on a Monday, it would appear in print the following day, so that Tuesday's newspaper mattered, not Monday's. After a few arguments about this I decided to accept the status quo , not try to correct matters and move on. I always got on well with the staff of the House as well, and got to know them all on a personal basis. I say "well done" to the Captain, the head usher and the Clerk of the Dáil. They have run a very efficient and orderly operation here, and that is very important. These are my parting thoughts to the House in my last few minutes here. As I have said, I am going back to the green fields and the golden vale of north Cork, having served under four leaders.

I have two e-mails to read out to the House before I conclude. These are very important and I want to put them on the record. The first, dated 24 January 2011, is from Mr. John Rafter, general secretary Garda Síochána Retired Members Association, and it states:

Please find attached copy of letter from the Garda Síochána Retired Members Association to Mr. Brian Lenihan, TD., Minister for Finance outlining the dissatisfaction of our association (with) the cuts to Garda pensions as a result of the changes made in Budget 2010.

I would ask for your support in having the measures contained in Budget 2010 rescinded when the Finance Bill is before the Houses of the Oireachtas.

The next one, dated 21 January 2011, is from Mr. Jim Groarke, and reads:

Can you explain to me what the universal social charge is, why it was introduced and where the money goes? Also, if you or your party form part or all of the next government, will you work towards removing this charge?

I will not be here, anyway. I wanted to put those on the record, and I have a bundle of e-mails. The country is in very serious crisis. We will finish up with no private banks in the high street and I beg the incoming Government to sort out the banking crisis and arrange for us to have a private banking system again. We trade internationally and as a trading country we will be very suspect if all our banks are State-owned. I hear the threat this morning as regards Bank of Ireland coming under State ownership as well. That to me does not augur well.

We had the regulators, Pat Neary and John Hurley. I worked as a member of the finance committee and ultimately they did not have the legislation and wherewithal their office required. Now we have a system of regulation, while there is no money available in the street. We need to put the Finance Bill through because there is no money available to extend to credit to businesses as working capital over a short period of time, because of over-regulation. We cannot just go from having no regulation into a regime of high regulation. I beg whoever is in government to immediately sort this out. I have no confidence in either Professor Patrick Honohan or Mr. Matthew Elderfield.

Mr. Elderfield is here to chastise us, I suspect, and he has brought a team with him. That I resent very much and he probably believes the Irish are what Cromwell thought of us in the 1600s, and I say the same thing to him. Professor Honohan has said he would sell our banks. I do not think he can sell any bank. He made a point to the effect that the Chinese might buy them. I do not want to see the Chinese with a financial base in Ireland, neither do I want them to have a military base here - because that is the one they are really interested in - from which to take over the world. Ireland would be the ideal place for such a base, in the Atlantic. Let us recognise that such threats are very real. Such things have happened before and history can repeat itself. With that mentality one gets nowhere.

Today Allied Irish Banks goes on the ESM, and that to me is a real tragedy. We should manage our banks differently. We have too many theoretical economists telling us what to do and they cannot manage their own business, never mind mine and the banking business. I very much regret what has happened to our banking system. I come from the southern part of the country, like Deputy Michael Noonan, the Fine Gael spokesman on finance. The Munster and Leinster, in the old days, was the bank that kept the farming community in business. It gave extended credit in the valley periods and this worked very well for farmers. Sometimes farming is in great difficulty. The bank helped to develop our co-operative movement, which has been the driver of jobs in rural towns and villages in County Cork, as well as in Limerick, and indeed all of Munster, including parts of Kilkenny. That was the bank which served the rural community. It was generous and ran a good business.

I understand that Deputy Morgan's leader has suggested the two banks should be merged. What a foolish thing to do - the stupid ass. I suggest that each of the two main banks demerge and that we return to the Provincial Bank, the Royal Bank and the Munster and Leinster Bank once more. On the Bank of Ireland side we should return to the Hibernian Bank and the National Bank. It was the order of the day for them to merge, some 25 years ago or more, but it is different today, and we need much smaller banks. That is the way forward for the banks. I was in town last night, when I saw a pub that was formerly the Hibernian Bank, owned by Bank of Ireland and I thought it would be lovely if that was reopened as a bank, since the licensed premises was to close. Let us de-merge the banks. It can be done, and it has been, before. I would urge the next Minister for Finance to consider this urgently. I appeal for a renewal of the banking system because there is no confidence left in that regard. The system is practically closing down because of the shortage of credit and the lack of overdraft facilities to deal with valley periods. Any Deputy in this House who is not aware of this situation is asleep, like Rip Van Winkle, because there is a crisis.

We previously had State-owned banks with the one policy of Government. We have had ACC and ICC and know how they worked. We have a few foreign banks and they are getting out as fast as they can. I want to see business people in charge of the banking system, people such as Denis O'Brien, Dermot Desmond or Martin Naughton of Glen Dimplex etc. There are about five such people who could do what is needed. We neither want regulators nor economists such as Peter Bacon who put us where we are, with NAMA and all those things.

It is interesting to hear the debate on the Finance Bill and what is being said in the national interest. Fine Gael and Labour want to uphold the national interest while at the same time wanting to vote down sections of the Bill. If I was thinking of the national interest, I would not vote against it, but rather let it through. It is in the Opposition's interest to let it through because the Government side is doing the dirty work for Fine Gael and Labour. I read out those two e-mails for that reason. Then we have the three musketeers, Deputies Jackie Healy-Rae, Michael Lowry and Mattie McGrath, whom I thank for coming in to listen to me. However, I think he should go to Dunnes Stores to get better value.

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