Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, but I am disgusted that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is not here. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State. We bailed out the banks and my children and grandchildren and everyone else's will still be paying them back, yet they have given two fingers to more than 80,000 people and families who had got a break, first for three months and then six. Let us just take one industry - music and entertainment - that provided so much solace and does so much for our mental health and well-being. The Taoiseach and others tell us we are all in this together but they and other small business people have been thrown overboard. They expected some bit of solace from the banks.

There is no legislation to deal with the banks and the Government has refused to introduce any, although many other EU states have brought in legislation to make the banks do so. We need legislation to force the banks on this. The Minister did not meet them until last Monday, three days before the freeze was due to run out. It was only a token meeting. The Minister has not dealt and is not dealing with the banks, and the banks have no interest in dealing with people sensitively one by one. They brought people through the courts throughout the pandemic. There were cases in the High Court taken by vulture funds and so on. The Government enabled the vulture funds by law to use hearsay. It is time the Government introduced legislation to put manners on the banks.

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