Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is selling off parts of these banks already, and the investors buying the banks, which will not pay tax for the next two decades, are buying them from the Irish State. It is simply wrong, and the Minister needs to look at what his counterparts in other parts of the globe have done. Let us look at our nearest neighbours, Britain. They took a decision that the 50% carry forward for financial institutions that were bailed out by them was not sufficient. They also have a levy on those banks. They decided that one can carry forward only 25%, which would mean that banks would start paying taxes on the profits they make. We have some of the most profitable banks in Europe, which is no wonder, given the sweetheart deal this Government and the previous Government have carved out with those banks which allows them to pay no tax on billions in profit. I heard the banks talking about getting back to normality. Placing a cap on the losses that banks can carry forward is normal. It is what happens in Britain. It happens in France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Poland. It happens in other countries where it is not unlimited, such as Canada, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Japan, Mexico and the Netherlands.

See this speech in context