Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support Deputy Doherty's amendment. It is intolerable that Irish taxpayers who bailed out these banks are in some cases being thrown out of their houses by these same banks, ruthlessly and without mercy. These banks decided to sell on debts to vulture funds which treat these people even worse than the banks had and now we are to give them a rolling tax break as long as they like, to let them roll. If that was an ordinary company which had set up in any part of this country, Revenue would be after it every year, screwing them, going as hard as they could on them and threatening them but because the banks are this elite group that brought this country to its knees, and are torturing people still, they seem to have some magic wand that they can wave over Government which means that it will not face up to tackling them. It is scandalous what they are getting away with when one sees how what I call the little people, like ourselves, are being treated by these entities. What Deputy Doherty is doing is right, in fact we should go further. There should be no breaks for these people. We should make sure that the money that the Irish people, through blood, sweat and tears, put into these banks is recouped after everything they have gone through, losing houses, businesses over the last ten years. The banks were the cause of the problem and we kept throwing money at them - it was like throwing it into a cesspit - and saying "You are great guys, keep going. We believe you are right." At the same time, the ordinary people are suffering the consequences of what they did. Until we as legislators face up to this and stop patting these people on the back, the ordinary people of Ireland will remain downtrodden.

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