Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I am delighted to be able to speak to the Bill brought forward by my namesake, Deputy Michael McGrath. I commend him, as I commend anyone who makes a reasonable effort to lessen the savage impact bank lending and lending of all forms have had on the nation, the people and families. This lending is continuing unabated.

The Bill is an effort to regulate those who have set up as money advisers, of whom there are hundreds. There are all kinds of experts. However, if we check their credentials, we find they do not have many. Of those who do, we ask where they were during the boom. They were the ones who advertised that anyone who could not get a mortgage should come to them. They massaged figures and presented repayment structures to encourage people to borrow more money than they could repay and more than they wanted or needed. Having received bonuses on the big loans they forced people to take out, they are now back as money advisers. Deceit and fraud are widespread and we are allowing them to go unregulated. The Minister of State, Deputy John Perry, is a business man and knows about bankers and lending. He has been in office for one year and two months and had the opportunity, with his Government colleagues, to do something about this problem, but he has not done anything.

We are completely preoccupied with paying off the unsecured debts of failed banks which robbed the people. Bank robbers used to be outside the banks, but they were working inside during the boom years. They robbed from within and put their hands in my pockets and those of everyone else. We are now being forced to pay the unsecured debt, but there is no support for ordinary Seán Citizen and his wife and family who are struggling with their debts to rogue banks and cowboy operators. In the last number of budgets one austerity measure after another was imposed, for what? It was to pay back the unsecured loans of bankers and gangsters who had left our shores and gone abroad where they had wealth. Even when they face the courts, they will still have their wealth.

I do not know what kind of democracy this country is or what the people think of us, but morale is low among the people. It behoves every Member of the Oireachtas to deal with this problem. People with shady pasts who had had their licences revoked elsewhere came to our shores and set up as lenders and advisers. Small business people face a plethora of legislation and regulations. This morning, at the meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, we heard from companies about nonsensical regulatory legislation in the European Union and the British Isles, but there is no legislation to deal with the cowboys and multimillionaire bankers who robbed the State or the smarmy brokers who said, "I can get you a mortgage, with a new SUV and a foreign holiday included in the package." These brokers received their commission, of course. They escaped unscathed, while ordinary people are hurting and a number have committed suicide. Ordinary, decent, law-abiding people who wanted to pay their way and were doing so were caught in the trap set by predators who went from door to door and advertised easy mortgages. Lack of regulation allowed the cowboys to move in and they are still there. I often wonder if the lunatics are in charge of the asylum. No one wanted to deal with this problem and no one has dealt with it.

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