Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Then the Labour Party got into bed with Fine Gael. What did it do? Persecute the ordinary people and put them into penury and here we are now thinking of selling off the bank. If this bank is sold, the money must go into infrastructure for rural and urban areas of Ireland and the ordinary people.

What about the people in the courts in Clonmel, Nenagh and all over the country today who are being evicted by the same bank? Here we are trying to pay back this money to Ms Merkel and the rest of them. As I stated, if there will be a sale, there is no one in this House that understands it better than those we represent. I note the work carried out by Civitas and its analysis of the Growth and Stability Pact and, in particular, its conclusion on failing to impose penalties on Germany and France. Why were the penalties not imposed on them? We are the good boys of Europe and the good girl, when Deputy Burton was Tánaiste, as well. Cailín deas álainn. She was the one that said, "Yes, yes, yes." I say, "No, no, no." This cannot be sold. We must resources back into the schools, into cataract operations, into special needs and into the mobility allowance, which has not happened for five or six years, to try to support our people for once given what happened over the past ten years.

There are many good people working in this bank but there are also many high officials in it whose remuneration is considerable. We talk so much about rural banking and community banking but we are paying lip service to it. Rather than selling it, we have a chance to make it a real community bank. Let it be owned by the people. Let it serve the people who saved it and who are still saving it. We will pay back the money to Europe when we have it. We will put it into our infrastructure now because our infrastructure is crumbling. We cannot get investment into rural areas anywhere outside of Dublin.

I say to the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, who is here, and to the Minister for Finance that it is time to think of the people. Those in Fine Gael got returned to power after 70 days of talks. We were all trying to talk sense into them but they got carried away again when they got into Government. They still want to look after the big bankers. They still want to look after the Germans and the Europeans. Think what happened in Brexit. Think what could have happened and what happened in France and what could have happened if Le Pen had got in. Listen to the people. There are salutary lessons there for the Government.

The people will not stand for this and I, as a customer of AIB for 40 years, will not stand for it because it is useless to anyone. A person can go in and talk and fill out forms all he or she likes, but AIB is no good to the small farmer, the ordinary working man, the mortgage holder, community services or anyone or anything. AIB is only self-serving and serving the Government and the Government is serving it. It is like rubbing butter to a fat cow's or fat pig's you no where. It does not do any good. It would not even make the pig fatter. This is a bad deal and bad business and cannot happen.

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