Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I happened to hear the discussion on Leaders' Questions this morning when Deputy Adams argued that the Central Bank, rather than the Government, was running the State. The Deputy asked whether the Government would legislate to give the Central Bank powers to act on mortgage interest rates and stand up for Irish mortgage holders and called on the Taoiseach to answer his question with "Yes" or "No". The Taoiseach replied that the answer was "Yes", on condition that the Central Bank requested such legislation. One could argue that this reply confirmed who is in charge and it is not the Taoiseach given his admission that he needed to receive a request from the Central Bank before he could act. This was a strange response and one which he may wish to reconsider.

Most people will agree that the mortgage crisis has not gone away. Irish banks are charging higher interest rates than banks in the rest of Europe, including Northern Ireland. The problem we have is that we do not seem to be able to tell them what to do.

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