Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is a national scandal. We are talking about €2.7 billion in profits by three banks which have been bailed out by the Irish people, banks that would not exist today if it were not for the fact that the Government at the time put its hands into citizens' pockets and put the money into those banks. This goes to the core of this issue. This is about fairness. The Minister said the carrying forward of losses is standard across the OECD. However, it is not standard the way we do it, whereby it is unlimited and one can carry forward forever and a day 100% of one's losses. The Minister talks about value in respect of the banks and other objectives. What we need is tax coming into this State to address some of the crises we have, with which the Minister is well familiar, namely, the fact that we have a homelessness crisis that is escalating, the fact that we have a housing crisis, the fact that we cannot provide for children with disabilities and the fact that we have hundreds of patients on hospital trolleys daily. However, the Minister is content to sit there and tell the Irish people he will not change any of this, that AIB will continue to pay no tax for 20 years, that Permanent TSB will operate in the same vein and that somehow this is okay.

See this speech in context