Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

All Deputies accept the absolute need for standards, sanctions and accountability in the context of the banking sector, so there will be general support for the idea behind the Bill. I do not think any Member will have a major difficulty with the four tenets, whether that is the senior executive accountability regime or new conduct standards for the regulated financial service providers, particularly in the context of management and staff. There is no difficulty in the context of enhancements to the Central Bank's fitness and probity regime and, obviously, all Members would all call for greater enforcement capabilities for the Central Bank.

That goes without saying. We need to ensure that we have a framework that can deal with the problems that we have had in banking. Yes, many have said before that this all should have happened earlier. We all know the pain and hurt that was caused by the tracker mortgage situation and it is not just the financial impact but also the societal impact it had on families. We know if we go back to the banking crisis, we had untold damage done across the board to significant sections of this society and to very significant numbers of families who are still reeling from the pain.

It is fair enough to say that there was a failure of Government at that particular time to stand up, an absolute failure by the European Union, and beyond that, an acceptance on some level that that journey or direction towards austerity was not the correct methodology. This is a conversation one has when one is talking to stakeholders across Europe, whether one is talking about parliamentarians from other European countries or those directly involved with the European Commission. It was an abysmal failure and we are very lucky to have got through it to the degree that we did. As bad as it was, it could always have been worse.

We need to ensure that we give a sufficient amount of capacity to the banking sector in not having to revisit that situation. I would also add my voice to what has been said on the absolute necessity to ensure we do the pieces that are necessary, whether we are talking about An Post or the credit unions. I know that Connect Credit Union Limited has set up a new current account hub in Clanbrassil Street in Dundalk and is taking on those customers from the banks which are leaving these shores. That is good to see but we know that there are certain rules and regulations that need to be changed in respect of freeing credit unions up to be able to provide the financial services which are offered by banks.

We all see why the Central Bank has changed some of the rules on lending but the problem is that we are doing this within a dysfunctional set-up which will not be sorted until we deal with the supply issue. Gabhaim buíochas.

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