Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's response if this was day one of this scandal might be appropriate but it was in 2010 that the Central Bank wrote to the banks about the tracker mortgage issue and it was in 2015 that this examination came to light. Two years ago, the Central Bank allowed the banks an additional year to come up with the final figures and yet in October 2017 we still do not have those figures. The Minister said that his message is that people should have the money returned to them. In regard to the banks in which the Government is a majority shareholder, did the Minister instruct them to return the money immediately - it was unlawfully taken and should be put back into customer's accounts immediately - and tell them that if they did not do so he would sack the boards of those banks, Permanent TSB and Allied Irish Banks, AIB and that he would not support the re-appointment of the CEO of the Bank of Ireland? Did the Minister tell the banks that he would use his powers to appoint real public interest directors to the boards of banks that were subject to the guarantee in 2008? Did he ever telephone any of the public interest directors and ask them what they had been doing on the boards for the past two years as the banks were dragging their feet?

What we need is clear deadlines. We want to know if the money will be back in individuals' accounts before the end of this year. In regard to the motion brought forward by Sinn Féin's on 24 January this year, to which the Government's response was that it would bring forward legislation on individual accountability, what has the Government done in regard to individual accountability in the banks, because this scandal will represent in a different form in years to come if we do not do that now?

See this speech in context