Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

5 o’clock

I am extremely disappointed at the conservatism, if not cowardice, of the reply of the Minister of State. This is actually a running scandal in the country. If we allow the banks to take us for a ride, then take us for a ride they will.

Fine Gael accepted, reluctantly, a bank levy at the request of the Labour Party. That was only because Fine Gael absolutely refused to address this area. The argument of the Minister of State is wrong. The four banks I have named will get €5.5 billion of deferred tax assets. They will thank Fine Gael very much. These are the people who brought the country close to its knees.

The Government is not even willing to match the actions of the banks in respect of how they are treating people with tracker mortgages and accidental landlords, a cause dear to the heart of the Minister of State. The houses of many of those people are being repossessed. The banks are not even being put on a par with ordinary businesses that pay their taxes.

Perfectly acceptable ways have been found to deal with this. They may not be perfect but they would actually result in these banks making a contribution.

We need to build schools, roads and public transport among other things. We need to build our health service. We could even reach an agreement that the tax so engendered could be used to fund the new health service. That would be a reasonable arrangement and I imagine all of us could agree on it.

It is a cowardly and wrong response. Technically, with that response the Government is actually making us the laughing stock of Europe. Why should European countries hold out a hand to us when we cannot even put up a hand on our own behalf?

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