Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Labour Party for giving us the opportunity to speak on this issue. I can finally understand why the people have utterly lost faith in politics. Fine Gael is saying we must comply with fiscal rules and sell off a share of AIB to pay down the debt. Fine Gael wants to go even further and reduce the ratio even more. The Labour Party says we should not sell AIB until we change the fiscal rules that the same party actively supported. Fianna Fáil says we should obey the fiscal rules save for an exception on this occasion.

I agree with Deputy Doherty's comment to the effect that in the midst of all of this there is no discussion on whether we should sell it in the first place. It is our second biggest bank and it is now owned by the people. As my colleague, Deputy Broughan, said, it was as a result of their blood, sweat and tears. Surely the circumstances that led to the acquisition of a 99% share of that bank should, at the very least, spark some type of discussion on what we have learned and what we should do next, especially with regard to whether we should hold on to it 100%. Other questions arise relating to governance, the appointment of public interest directors and the importance of credit to small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals and so on. We have not heard a word on any of these things.

I sit on the Committee of Public Accounts. Repeatedly, week after week, one of the greatest failures on the part of the organisations that come before us is a failure to carry out a cost benefit analysis in respect of their decisions. We are in the Chamber tonight courtesy of the Labour Party in respect of the motion to have an opportunity to make some comment on this debate. I thank the members of the Labour Party in this regard. The Government wants to confine the debate to a narrow context, that is to say, how much to sell off and when to sell off in order to pay down a national debt that is already being reduced in any event. If we keep going down this road, we are going to be in a position in several years' time whereby we will have to write off the national debt. This is because we are not investing in our economy. We are not building houses, investing in integrated public transport or investing in our health. Further down the road we will be unable to pay off the debt at all.

Are we seriously being asked to forget the history of AIB? I am referring to the history of being bailed out by the taxpayers as far back as 1985, its poor corporate culture, its excessive remuneration of senior staff and its overcharging of customers. Let us remember that this bank was bailed out. Let us remember that it had 53,000 bogus non-resident accounts. It wrote off over £500,000 for a former Fianna Fáil Taoiseach. It overcharged customers. Is the Government seriously expecting us not to have a debate on this? Are we to accept the Government's word that it is a good thing to sell it off for the sake of rules that do not need to be complied with in such a rigid manner?

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