Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In case I was muddled in my initial contribution, I wish to clarify that AIB reported profits of €1.1 billion for last year, as against a loss of €1.7 billion for the previous year, a turnaround of €2.8 billion. Similarly, Bank of Ireland reported a profit of €920 million in 2014 and a loss of €500 million in 2013, representing a turnaround of €1.5 billion. We have two banks in a duopoly with a turnaround figure of €4.3 billion, set against the reality of customers being being insulted, in operational terms, by them. I have first-hand experience of this. I am a former commercial banker in a State-sponsored bank for businesses, small and medium enterprises, a worthy bank that understood the principles of banking and kept really close to its customers. What is happening now is that the banks are becoming remote. I gave as an example the board of Bank of Ireland. Four members are foreign, while the remainder, bar two, have all had experience working outside Ireland. They are remote and unfeeling. I do not mean that they have to be lovey dovey, but in the sense of having a heart, they are out of touch with households and those in jobs and who work in businesses. It is not right.

The last bank I passed by was a branch of PTSB. An advertisement displayed read as follows: "Ready to buy your first house? Yes, give me a debt! Permanent tsb back to basics". Given what has happened, that is the philosophy, if it could be called that, the three banks should not be allowed to have. I will give the Minister the paper to which I referred and which I sent to the Chairman of the banking inquiry. The evidence shows that it was banks' boards and auditors who were clearly at fault. We do not need the processional. Does the Minister remember in May last year that there was a proposal to have in the terms of reference that every member of every board from 2001 to 2008 should be required to be in attendance in the one place to listen to the reports on their own accounts and their own financial engineering and the lack of principles during those eight years, with the auditors sitting behind them, in order that the people of Ireland would be able to see how a credit pyramid grew, which went out of control in terms of the figure for domestic banking in Ireland growing from three times to more than five and a half times national income? That was unacceptable and so wrong but nobody has said so formally in this House. I say it again - it is so wrong that this fact has not been understood and it needs to be. Advertisements such as the one mentioned, given what has happened, should not be allowed to be placed at the entrance doors to banks.

See this speech in context