Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I withdraw that so. I was talking about small business people and the Minister came back to say he was blocking a loophole. This loophole is completely different. What I was looking for related to small businesses and transactions involving families or the private entrepreneurs we badly need to keep in our rural towns and villages. By rural towns and villages, I mean places in Kildare too. Deputy Healy-Rae said earlier that Kildare was not in rural Ireland, but there are many villages and small towns in Kildare which are desolate and, as such, it is. I was not looking for loopholes like this to be maintained; far from it. That is why I say, if the Minister is not misleading me, that he is being disingenuous. That is what I want and it is what Deputy Fitzmaurice wanted that night. We appealed to the Minister and put down an amendment which was voted on to give people until 1 January, which is only around the corner, to get their affairs in order, wake up their solicitors and accountants and get their tax certificates, the rest of the money and the deal over the line. Those are people who had deals done. They had spit on their palms, shaken hands and agreed and gathered up the money. That is what I was talking about. I am in favour of all the multinationals and big institutions being prevented from taking advantage of any loophole they see. They are like seagulls landing in the yard when they see one. They would take the false teeth out of one's mouth if one were not careful.

The vulture funds were going in and they had too much access to Government. Deputy Fitzmaurice is 100% right on that. I raised an issue with the Tánaiste last week about a farmer in north Cork and I handed him details on that today. An honest, hard-working family man is trying to do deals with a bank that has dragged him through the courts for two or three years while I and other intermediaries and financial agents have tried to intervene. They will not talk to anyone and just keep going to court because they smell the fact that land prices are rising and that this man has some. To hell with his family and his business; all they want is a pound of flesh. It is not a pound of flesh at all; it is a stone of flesh. As Deputy Healy-Rae said, they want to suck the life out of these families who are being terrorised. They do not get much solace in the Four Courts either. This is happening at enormous expense. They want interest and costs, which are enormous for the high-fliers they have engaged. One never meets a person one can do a deal with. AIB is one of the worst culprits and will not engage with customers. It is the job of the Minister for Finance to ensure they engage and talk. These are our own people being marauded and plundered. I hate to call them "foreigners" but they are outside-of-State vulture funds and they have no interest. We have a few of our own vulture funds which have grown up in our own country.

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