Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government believes that a banking system, which in the long run is owned by the private sector, is the best way to meet the needs that the Taoiseach described earlier. It will ensure we can provide loans to families and businesses, as well as ensuring deposits can earn a decent rate of interest. Crucially, it will make sure the kind of link which caused such a catastrophe in our country in our recent past is firmly broken, namely, where the link between the taxpayer and our banking system is gradually reduced over time.

As the Deputy knows, I do not have the legal power to intervene in the decisions made by the board of a bank. We went through a period in which our regulators either did not have enough power or the power available to them was not sufficient. All this conspired to create such difficulties for our economy and society. Fundamentally, several of our banks are now being given guidance by an independent regulator to act in a certain way to improve the quality of their balance sheets and reduce their non-performing loans.

The Government must strike the balance between improving the financial affairs of our banks to deal with potential difficulties which we could encounter in the future, while ensuring people are treated fairly and concerns are recognised. We have been successful in doing that to date. We have seen a huge reduction in mortgage arrears and non-performing loans while avoiding-----

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