Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have no problem making a full comparison. When the Minister compares us to Italy, Portugal, Spain or Germany, the difference is their finance ministers have made sure that, in those countries, people can continue to avail of payment breaks, depending on their circumstances. Here, where the Minister is unique because he is the majority shareholder in two of the largest banks, he has done nothing.

The Minister has allowed these people to fall off a cliff, in a manner of speaking. The reality is that tomorrow is the deadline to apply for a payment break. Some 37,000 people got them approximately six months ago. These people will have to return to making full payments or their credit ratings will be affected. Their loans will be deemed to be non-performing and the banks will have to carry additional capital. We are not back in normal times by any measure. That is why the European Banking Authority, EBA, guidelines allowed countries such as Italy, Spain, Germany and Portugal to do what they did. The Minister had an opportunity to do the right thing. The problem is that he and Fine Gael have done the wrong thing time and again. As we have seen in the cases of Senator Michael D'Arcy and Brian Hayes, the Minister's party is too close to big finance and the banks.

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