Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

We believe the people, through democratically elected representatives, should control the financial system, so that we dictate the lending and investment policies of the banks and so that those policies are directed towards the social good, investment in small and medium enterprise and infrastructural projects, the development of strategic industry and enterprise and all the things that are not happening now. The banks are not putting the money back into the economy. No matter how much we shovel money into the banks, it does not go back into the economy. We throw up our hands and ask why the banks do not do this, that and the other, but we refuse to exercise control over them.

It is not a question of exercising control over every nut and bolt. It is about setting the strategic priorities for the banking system and telling banks that our priorities are distressed mortgage holders and keeping roofs over people's heads, employment and putting people back to work, and developing strategic enterprise and industry in order to put people back to work and generate real wealth, real growth and real revenue. Is Deputy White saying we cannot do that?

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