John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This Parliament now stands as the last line of defence for people who are threatened by purchase of their loans from the banks by vulture funds. Permanent TSB has defied the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach and this House by not turning up to the committee. If the State banks do not turn up for a hearing with the finance committee what chance have we with the banks that are not owned by the State and what chance have we with regard to the vulture funds? This question is bigger than vulture funds. It is about what type of society we want and what type of banking system we want. I suggest that the citizen has had enough. No civilised society can tolerate the actions of vulture funds. They are here to profiteer on the backs of the ordinary people we represent in this House. These funds are adding further hardship to the cases of families, small businesses and the farming community. We cannot stand idly by and watch what these funds are doing. Their culture is not to engage. They refuse to do it. They leave the customer on the long finger and act through an agent. The agent is not accountable to the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach. The agent is only accountable to the vulture fund. I am aware of a recent case that was being settled. The final straw was that the client had to promise to cash in his sister's pension fund in order to pay in five years' time. These funds are absolute bullies and thugs. The culture they create for the next generation of bankers should not be tolerated by any country.

I fully agree with the Bill but I believe we will shortly find ourselves moving beyond it. That is why the Master of the High Court, Mr. Edmund Honohan, SC, has put a Bill before the Members of this House for their consideration, namely, the national housing co-operative and fair mortgage Bill 2018. There is now an onus on the Government to look at what Bills are before the House, to consider what is being said by Deputy Michael McGrath, by Sinn Féin and by other parties and to take the best from all the Bills in order to offer a protection of the citizens we represent.

Do we really want the banks to make more than €1 billion each year and at the same time terrorise their own customers? I believe the answer is "No, we do not." We must find some way to ensure that, in spite of the current arrangements, they pay their fair share of tax into the coffers of the State. This is not happening now. They are disregarding us, they are setting their own rules, they are profiteering and we allow them away with it. I appeal to the Minister to take the best of this Bill to do whatever he can to put in place a system of protection for the vulnerable people in the State who look to us as parliamentarians for help.

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