Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply but I would like to correct him. I would be the first to say that the Government should intervene on a day-to-day basis on decisions of this sort. The Government owns it and it has two directors on the bank's board. I do not know what they are there for if they are not there to have an input into policy decisions. AIB has a disgraceful record as regards mortgages and it has brought the country to its knees. The people who were there then are still there now. Appointments of the old cronies are still being made to the board and the old people are resurfacing. The Government should ring up the bank to say: "It is not Government policy. We do not want a 0.5% increase in mortgage interests rates for these people and we forbid you to do it." This increase is obviously part of Government policy. It is rather like a tax because the Government is asking the people who are being charged an additional 0.5% to support a State asset which is losing money. It is equivalent to a tax and I suggest the Tánaiste should intervene and say there will be no more interest rate rises at this stage by giving instructions to the directors who are there at his beck and call. I do not know what they do.

What proportion of the money AIB will take in through this increase will go to the bank? Is the Tánaiste aware that a large number of the bank's mortgages have been securitised and sold off in bundles to other institutions outside this jurisdiction? Much of this money will not even go to the AIB or the Exchequer. It will go outside the country because the mortgages have been securitised. I do not expect the Tánaiste to give a specific answer to that now but I would like to know what proportion of the money will go to AIB.

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