Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

They are not doing that. That is the point. The Taoiseach's response is that the Government would like the banks to sit down with their customers but they are not doing so. That is what Fiona Muldoon, the head of banking regulation at the Central Bank, and the Secretary General of the Department of Finance clearly said yesterday. The Taoiseach wrote last year to the regulator and notes what the head of banking regulation and the Secretary General have to say but we have gone beyond noting. Does he agree with what they have to say? Does it not call for a fundamental change of direction and a change in the orthodox approach to banks to date, which is a non-interventionist orthodoxy, articulated by the Taoiseach last week when he said he could not intervene? Given what we are hearing, the regulator is barking very loudly and the Taoiseach is not listening to what is being said. Particularly in the context of personal insolvency, he proposes to give the very people about whom he has just spoken the veto in terms of resolving household debt. That is the point. How could he have confidence in the banking leadership, or lack thereof as articulated by the head of banking regulation? How can he trust that establishment to fairly, objectively and resolutely deal with an issue that is causing immense pain to hundreds of thousands of families across the country when it is making no sustainable effort to deal with it?

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