Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The bank bailout has to date cost taxpayers €60 billion including interest. The Government has dissolved the bank levy, of which the banks have paid only €1.2 billion. What is happening with Bank of Ireland? Three branches in County Tipperary, in Cahir, Cashel and Templemore, are closing. All over the country, banks are exiting rural Ireland. EBS are leaving Tipperary town and we have seen what is happening with Ulster Bank. When is the Government going to get real? We have a 14% share in Bank of Ireland. Exercise that.

I too heard the Minister this morning, with his feeble words and little tickling, as it were, of what is going on in Davy and elsewhere. The Government is not supporting taxpayers; it is supporting the banks and is in bed with them. It is allowing these closures and the abandonment of rural Ireland to go on week in, week out, and multiple further closures will be coming because the banks get away with it and are not touched by the Government. Why has the Government abolished the banking levy?

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