Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry, but I had to step out for another meeting. I have no issue with the Minister of State's good self and this has nothing to do with him, but it is a disgrace that the Minister is not present. This day last week, a Minister of State was sent in with ten minutes to go. Unfortunately, I was in the Chair and I had to suspend the House because the Minister of State had no briefing and was unable to answer. We had to go into the corner over there and talk to his officials about the significant borrowing and schemes in which we are about to engage. This is not good enough. We are supposed to have pre-legislative scrutiny, detailed discussions on Committee Stage and the legislation deliberated on in the House, but we have waived the pre-legislative scrutiny phase, no committees have been set up and, according to the reports from the Dáil reform committee I have heard in the past half hour, there will be bulldozing all the way by the new Government. And we are expected to pass this Bill.

I stand here as someone who voted for the bank guarantee. I am like a bad record saying that it left a bad taste in my mouth and was the greatest mistake I ever made in my political life. Here we are again, though, looking at proposals like this one. It is being put through on a whim without scrutiny, Committee Stage debate, any real time for amendment or so on. I am concerned when the Minister of State says that we have to get this through and that time is not on our side but that there will be statutory instruments. The House has no discourse about or input into what goes into statutory instruments.

According to the Minister of State, the heads of the banks have given positive indications. The banks do not know what positive is. They do not do positive. They do it for themselves. The people are in penury trying to pay back the bailout because of the way the banks were allowed to carry on. There has still been no legislation introduced to deal with them.

I have major concerns about the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SBCI, and the three pillar banks getting their claws into this. There may be different suites of options and rates, but the banks' raison d'êtreis to make healthy profits. They have no interest in the struggling people. We saw what solace the banks gave them. There was supposed to be a moratorium over the past four or five months and no evictions because of the pandemic, but there has been nothing but evictions, court appeals and the like in the commercial area. It is as if there is no pandemic. The banks tell the Government one thing and it listens to them. This is like the European situation. Instead of being the whipping boys, the Government could tell them what to do, but no. There is no legislation to control them so the banks can give us the two fingers on both hands.

I am worried about how they will handle this money and deal with people who get into distress, particularly small SMES of one self-employed person and two or three employees. I have seen this happening already in the case of employees who were in receipt of the pandemic payment. They had loan approvals for mortgages, but because they were in receipt of the payment, the banks pulled their approvals. The banks want any reason, big, little or small, not to lend to and support people. They are just looking for those reasons. It could be the most minute issue, but they want a reason to refuse support. In the spirit of ní neart go cur le chéile, we support one another, but banks do not do that. They have got away with so much. They had free rein in what they did to the country during the banking crisis. They were then bailed out and my grandchildren will be paying that back. The banks did not learn their lesson because they walked away scot free. There are conflicting messages from the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach about the Government's meetings with the banks. The banks wheel out their former politician and now PR spokesperson. I have no issue with him, but they are putting a spin on this and putting people through grief.

There are businesses that are on their last legs. Some of them are run by people who are over 66 years of age and on the old age pension. They are self-employed, be they publicans, shopkeepers, bus drivers, undertakers or candlestick makers. They cannot get a bob and the banks will give them no leniency to stay afloat. They cannot feed themselves. They will be forced to get assistance from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. They literally cannot live. They cannot live on the wind. There have been some horrific stories. There is no point in going to a bank with the béal bocht. One will get an doras dúnta. Banks will not even meet someone now. They have removed themselves from most small towns in the regions. They have pay machines and so on.

A customer does not meet the bank manager any more. At one time the bank manager knew the bank's customers and their capabilities and he or she had a good relationship with them. There was two-way trust. Now, the banks are screwing the customer for whatever they can get out of him or her. They want only to take in whatever money they can and to make as much profit as they can. We all know what happened in regard to the tracker mortgages. Do we need any more evidence? I note a new case has arisen.

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