Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I think it is inevitable that the main banks will pass on the likely increases in the ECB rate over the coming period. The perverse reality is that the environment we are in at the moment, as interest rates go up, means that bank profitability will go up as well. I would like the Government to send a signal, and this House should send a signal, that banks should, given the climate at the moment, absorb as many of these interest rate rises as they possibly can and avoid passing them on to variable-rate mortgage customers, especially at this really difficult time. Given the normalisation, if we can call it that, of mortgage interest rates in Ireland at this point in time, the likelihood is that we will go back to the point at which we had been, with the second highest rates in the eurozone over the last few years, when interest rate rises are passed on, and in the context of the fact that Ulster Bank and KBC are exiting the market. It is inevitable that the mortgage lenders there at present will take advantage of and exploit that and exploit their advantage in the market.

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