Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The major problem is that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, has made an oligopoly in the State by creating two banks, which he refers to as pillar banks, with 80% of the market. When there are two large beasts with such dominance within a market, they can pretty well determine the functioning of the market by themselves. They can determine location, price and level of service within a market, which is exactly what they are doing. They are withdrawing from less profitable bases because they know they can retain customers as they have no other options. One would imagine a free market political party like Fine Gael would be happy to see extra competitors within the market. We in Sinn Féin have been ranting about this for years and four or five years ago I launched a document on public banking and sent it to the Minister of Finance. It is jaw-droppingly difficult to watch the death of rural Ireland while at the same time credit unions are not allowed to use the €10 billion they have on deposit for the good of the rural economy.

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