Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

One consequence of this drive to privatisation could be the sell-off of buy-to-let property loans to vulture funds. Is it accurate that AIB is planning to sell off close to €2 billion worth of those? Could that result in thousands of tenants in buy-to-let properties being evicted as the vulture funds seek to take vacant possession for sale? While I want an answer to that question, the more fundamental point is that instead of privatising these banks - for example selling off AIB in the early part of 2017 at significantly less than what it would have been valued at a year or 18 months ago - we could have these banks in democratic public ownership. They could be used as a lever in the economy. They could be used to have write-downs for those who cannot pay their mortgages, and as a mechanism of developing a productive, green, socialist economy.

See this speech in context