Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have very good formal relationships with the banks now. Contacts can be make quite adequately through officials in the Department of Finance, who are in constant contact with the banks. An interest rate is the price at which money is lent and the price contains a pricing in of risk. The banks must be in a position to arrange these matters commercially when they are no longer relying principally on funds supplied by the Central Bank but are in the market raising funds and where they get a large proportion of their funds from depositors. In that context, we want them to act commercially and we want the banks to be restored to full commercial health. The Irish taxpayer owns two of the banks completely and owns 15% of the third and we want the banks to be profitable again to protect the investment of Irish taxpayers. In due course I hope I, or one of my successors, will be able to recover the money from the banks by selling the shares in the banks and taking back what the taxpayer was forced to invest after the collapse in the banking system on the watch of the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government.

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