Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Apologies to the Chair, but I certainly do not apologise for what I said across the floor. The Minister can take a robust exchange and he is capable of having one himself.

If we are to have an independent inquiry into the banks, let us have it, and if the Minister wants to play a game with what happened on that fateful night in 2008, he can toddle over to the Department and look at the files. In the meantime, if we are to have a truly independent inquiry into banking, it should be from start to finish and not concentrate on one fateful night, because the guarantee was the result of what had happened during the previous five to six years. I found very few people in this House who said at any time before this that banks were lending too much and were being irresponsible as they shovelled out credit. Even the policies being pursued by the Minister when he was in opposition were inflationary. Fine Gael sought more tax designations and holiday home designations. The party called for the scrapping of stamp duty to get rid of the last brake the Government had on the property market so it could muster a few headlines in the Sunday Independent for taking a populist stance.

If we want an honest debate on the difficulties, we will have it, but in the meantime we must come up with solutions that address the problems faced by 100,000 people who lie in their beds at night wondering how they will ever get out of the difficulties they are in. I do not believe this legislation holds out any hope for them. It holds out a lot of hope for the banks when it comes to addressing the difficulties.

I welcome the personal insolvency schemes, but they do not take into consideration what a family is expected to live on. All this does is tell people to live on less while the bank flogs them to make them pay back the full amount for five, six or seven years. Families will live in penury. That is no way to allow them to contribute to society.

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