Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If AIB proceeds with its plan it will be the highest mortgage lender in the State. All it has to do is increase its rates by 30 basis points and it will be the highest. The Minister for Finance owns this bank on behalf of the Irish people. He says it would be wrong to interfere because that is not the way to run the country but he called the banks into Government Buildings. His Deputies were banging their fists and telling the media they were going to insist on the banks passing on interest rate decreases. In fairness to the banks, they complied. What was good then is good now. It is unpalatable for the tens of thousands of people who are in mortgage distress with AIB or are just about surviving that the Minister will sit idly by while a bank which received €21 billion of the money they have foregone in taxes over the past six years charges the highest interest rates in the market. He should use his influence because it will be disastrous for the economy if AIB is allowed to increase its rates given that we already face an unprecedented crisis with mortgages.

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