Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is the majority shareholder on behalf of the Irish people in AIB and Permanent TSB, and a significant shareholder in Bank of Ireland. What did he do yesterday? He had tea and coffee with the banks through Zoom and a nice friendly chat, where they came in and told him they are going to do what they always do, which is to deal with individuals on an individual basis. Even if Germany has done this for 21% of its customers, the Minister will have failed to address it for anybody after this month. Under the EBA guidelines, banks in this State could have announced a continuation or an extension of the breaks, which would mean these individuals’ credit rating would not be affected. It would mean they would not be deemed as non-performing loans if they could not pay the full capital or interest. It would mean the banks would not have to hold additional capital when we need banks to be lending to SMEs. There are 32,000 SMEs affected, many of which cannot go back to paying full costs and, therefore, this will have a negative impact on their rates. The Minister had a responsibility and, indeed, a duty to do the right thing. He has failed miserably because there will be no extensions to payment breaks for anybody in this State after they run out later this month.

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