Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

There is a banking crisis unfolding before our eyes in real time in this country. It is one for which the Minister, his party and the Government are in large part responsible. I have listened as, one by one and with furrowed brows, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Deputies rose to their feet in this Chamber and fretted about the closure of banks in their constituencies. Each was careful to mention every town that has been stuffed by these decisions in recent times, yet none of these Deputies has admitted that there is a major problem with the market structure in this country as regards banking and that the Government is responsible for the market structure.

The crisis is happening for a number of reasons. The main reason is the unbelievably uncompetitive banking market that exists in Ireland. This is a threat to staff, customers, small businesses, farmers and regional Ireland. It is happening because we have a duopoly that was created by a former Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, when he created a two-pillar banking system. The two large banks have unbelievable supplier power. They can determine every aspect of their engagement with customers. They can literally do whatever they like to customers because if their customers do not like it, they can get stuffed. They have literally nowhere else to go at this stage. I spoke to an individual who wanted to know what they could do in their town given the retreat of the banks, and if people should barter. The banking market should consist of a large number of players which are all smaller. That would reduce supplier power, increase the buyer power of customers and equalise the power between both the supplier and the customer. Anybody who is studying leaving certificate economics at the moment would understand that. When Mario Draghi was the head of the European Central Bank, he referred to the Irish market as a quasi-monopoly.

I have listened to the Minister say all night that he cannot do this and he cannot do that. I do not expect him to direct any bank to do anything, but he is responsible for the structure of the market and that is the most frustrating element. That has not been discussed so far in this debate. The economic dimension has been absent. There is a desert of economic expertise coming from the Government Deputies. I have raised the issue a number of times with the previous Government and this Government and I have called on the Minister to do the job with regard to the reform of the market, yet he refused to do it. That is not unusual because this type of market dysfunction is normal in this country. We have it in the beef market. We have it in the insurance market. The housing market displays market dysfunction. I do not know the reason the Government will not get involved to fix it. I am not sure whether it is due to ideology or incompetence. I am not sure exactly why the Government sits on its hands when it comes to this.

Yesterday, I spoke to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Reform, and Taoiseach. He admitted to me that the Government had no plan to fix the dysfunctional banking market in Ireland. He also admitted that there were no plans to set up a stakeholder public bank. He said there were no plans to increase the banking capabilities of the post office network or the credit union system.

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We come in here and listen to non-stop platitudes about the post offices and credit unions, yet there are no plans at this moment of crisis in the banking industry for the Government to increase the banking capability of these two institutions.

Does the Minister accept that he is the Minister with responsibility for the structure of the banking market? Does he have any plan to set up a stakeholder public banking system? Does he have any plan to increase the marketing capabilities of the post office network? Does he have any plan to increase the banking capabilities of the credit unions?

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