Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)

The time for shrugging its shoulders on this issue has passed and the Government must take responsibility and intervene now. We have a situation where the banks are supposedly owned on our behalf and it is time for the Government to show them who is master. Reading the papers, one would have to wonder who is calling the shots when we see the banks lamenting the fact that the Central Bank code of practice, which has only been in place for two months, is too stringent for them. They are weeping and wailing that they do not have enough harassment powers. They are limited to three opportunities a month to deal with and hound people in this situation. The idea that this would be acceptable behaviour to citizens experiencing severe distress with crisis mortgages is reprehensible and shows how far removed those running the banks are from the real lives of ordinary citizens. This is the same type of attitude which has Permanent TSB implementing such exorbitant interest rates. These further impoverish people and drive them into a mortgage arrears situation for no fault of their own but that they are with the wrong lender.

Meanwhile, banks like the Ulster Bank, which was mentioned with regard to the eviction alluded to earlier, have been awarding their officials millions in sterling in bonuses. This is a joke. We have a real crisis here of a publicly owned banking system being run privately. This does not benefit homeowners and small businesses. It is up to the Government to deal with this. Today in the constituency of the Minister who was here for a minute and then legged it, I dealt with a small and viable business which had to close because it could not get access to funding. This is a story we hear throughout the country. Those on the Government side cannot continue to talk out of both sides of their mouths. The banks must free up finance to keep small businesses going.

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