Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I read in the paper this morning that the Royal Bank of Scotland has lost £34 billion since 2008. Last year alone it lost £5 billion but paid out bonuses of £679 million. In Spain, Bankia issued figures yesterday showing that it lost €19 billion last year. I read in the Financial Times last week that the Spanish Finance Minister, Luis De Guindos, said he does not expect a single Spanish bank to close down. This is despite the fact that the banks are insolvent. As the Minister knows, because we were arguing about it yesterday evening, there is no limit to what we can do for banks. He might say they are vital to the national interest and this, that and the other but I do not know how anyone can say that AIB and the Bank of Ireland have been vital to our interests when they have been effectively closed for the past four years. It is still just about impossible to get money out of them.

It is a huge problem for people that we have to impose a house tax on them when they cannot afford to pay it and are in a very difficult place, struggling to pay their household bills. Over half the population has only €50 left after paying their household bills each month yet the Government thinks they can pay a house tax. They see in the newspapers and on television what is still happening in the banks. It is mind-boggling. The gap in earnings between the top 10% and the bottom 10% in the developed world is 14 times greater now than 25 years ago. It is becoming unsustainable. We cannot expect ordinary people to continue to pick up the tab to suit this philosophy.

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