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

There is clearly a lack of competition in the banking sector, and a number of banks are bogged down by loss-making tracker mortgages. Despite what some may think, not all tracker loan books are loss-making. I welcome AIB's move to reduce its variable interest rate. In continental Europe the average variable mortgage interest rate is 2.64%, compared to 4.5% here. We must consider what will happen when the ECB rate begins to increase, as it inevitably will, and how it will affect those who are struggling to pay their mortgages. It is only a matter of time before the rate increases.

We are not living in normal banking times. The State owns 99% of AIB, 99% of Permanent TSB and 15% of Bank of Ireland, and this puts an onus on the Minister to stand up and say the rates are out of line. The Minister had no problem intervening in AIB's share price, which is a dodgy issue for a Minister for Finance who owns the bank. He had no problem warning people that AIB's shares were overvalued and that they should not buy them. At least he should stand up and say the rates applied by banks that we own or in which we have a substantial shareholding are out of line with those in continental Europe and ask them to reduce their rates if they can.

See this speech in context