Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I get confused sometimes as to what Deputy Ross would actually like to happen with the banks. Sometimes I cannot help but think that, unless he and Deputy Finian McGrath were running the banks, he would not be pleased with the performance of anybody running them. The reality is that the Government has to take a holistic view. Deputy Shane Ross talks about shareholders, the taxpayer and the small person. These are people who want to know that every cent of taxpayers' money pumped into the banking system, or at least into the live banks and not the zombie banks that Fianna Fáil put money into, will be recouped.

I have heard Deputy Ross speak eloquently and correctly about the need for more competition in the banking sector, yet he wants the Minister for Finance running around from bank to bank trying to run them. The banks are commercial entities. Our job is to get out of the business of owning banks, we do not want to own them. I have made it very clear to the Deputy in my initial response that some of the votes actually cast at the AGMs reduced the cost of directors' fees this year and last year.

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