Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is easy for someone to get a loan when he or she does not want one. It is the people who want a loan who cannot get one. All of the organisations are lovely until someone goes to see them. They put a person through the wringer and he or she comes out with a refusal. What is the good in that? It was confirmed by the Central Bank that the State effectively had a sum of €20 billion. The figure of €170 million is not included because it is for a pilot project. The sum would be only a few million euro. It would not be risk capital. There were to be two pilot schemes, one in Mullingar and the other in north Dublin.

The Department of Finance let the mask slip when it stated in the report: "Furthermore, there is significant evidence to suggest that the Irish banking sector has become increasingly more stable from a capital and funding perspective, and that relative to Ireland's European peers, that there is additional capacity to meet demand for lending to Irish SMEs and households." This is blatant propaganda on behalf of AIB and Bank of Ireland. We all know what the banks are masters of, and it is not processing loan applications or ensuring SME loan applications even occur. I know what they did to people; they wiped them out over €5,000 and €10,000 overdrafts. They tried to sink the whole place yet the Minister of State is protecting them. What would the late General Seán Mac Eoin, a great Fine Gael man, the Blacksmith of Ballinalee, say to this? He would rise up in revolution and he would tell them where to go. The Minister of State should take inspiration from figureheads like that from Longford and Westmeath.

I am disgusted with this. The Department of Finance went too far in praising the banks and, as a result, it revealed its true agenda. In conclusion, the report states: "Nevertheless, the two Departments recognise that the concept of local public banks has its merits and both Irish Rural Link and SBFIC believe that it has the support of many key stakeholders, including private investors." What is the Government going to do to facilitate the credit unions and An Post in regard to developing public banking to serve rural Ireland, disadvantaged communities and small businesses? Fine Gael is still in hock to the banks. It should call them off. It made a mess of the whole thing. It did not sell off when it should have sold off, and now it is down billions and it is trying to protect their capital shareholding and everything else. The dogs in the street and the ordinary people know what is happening, and they do not accept this type of gibberish from the bureaucrats. The Minister of State should tell the bureaucrats what he thinks of them and shake them up.

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