Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The issue here is the threat to the future of Ulster Bank. We are talking about 2,500 jobs and 88 communities in which the bank is based and in many cases it is the only bank serving those communities. We are also talking about the interests of many thousands of mortgage holders who will fear Ulster Bank being transferred into new hands and those new hands having claws in them in the form of vultures. They will fear what will happen to their mortgages if they fall into arrears or if they have arrangements with the bank that expire and new arrangements have to be put in place. The Minister has indicated that he would trust that Ulster Bank will keep stakeholders informed. I do not trust Ulster Bank to do that. We found out about this from a leak in the parent company. The Government has to be poised for action here. The question of nationalisation in order to defend jobs, mortgage holders and services will need to be put on the agenda and it will be part of the debate on this.

See this speech in context