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

The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is a Minister for the rich in a Government for the rich. He is a Minister for the fat cats in a Government for the fat cats. He is a Minister in a Government which does not give a damn about working people. Ulster Bank put 2,800 jobs in jeopardy but there was no action from him. Bank of Ireland axed 88 branches and is driving for 1,400 redundancies but there is no action from him. He has taken no action despite the fact that he, as Minister for Finance, is a very significant shareholder in the bank. He did not even raise a finger to try to stop it.

However, then AIB planned a takeover of Goodbody stockbrokers. Goodbody executives are not bound by the pay limit for bankers of €500,000 per year but AIB executives are so bound. So now none of them can avail of bankers' bonuses, right? No, completely wrong. Why is it wrong? Thanks to the Minister, Goodbody executives can still avail of bonuses, while AIB executives can now transfer to Goodbody and avail of them too. In the middle of the pandemic and without so much as a memorandum to Cabinet, in the week after thousands of bank workers saw their jobs put on the line, what has the Minister done? He has opened the door to bankers' bonuses all over again.

I will finish the way I began. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is a Minister for the rich in a Government for the rich. He is a Minister for the fat cats in a Government for the fat cats. He is a Minister in a Government which does not give a damn about working people. He is an absolute disgrace.

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