Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

I intend to support this Bill as my party colleagues did in the Dáil when the vote was taken there in the early hours this morning. We do this because the Bill is in the national interest but we do so with reservation because we know that the Bill could be much better. It is disappointing that the Minister for Finance did not accept my party's amendments and those of other parties which would have strengthened the Bill.

When we debated the economy in this Chamber last night I said there is an onus on the Opposition not only to highlight the problems in the economy but to propose and support sensible solutions. My party understands that the Government must intervene to stabilise the economy and the financial system and that is why we will support the Bill. The logic behind this move is to undermine the bear market and lead to investment in our banking system.

This legislation is about more than the banks. It is about offering security to ordinary citizens and to investors in Irish businesses which in turn means jobs. As the media speculated, other states may well follow this move by our State.

The concern on the street in recent days is about what we will get out of the move. What will the Government extract from the banks in return for this legislation? That is where the Bill falls short. It does not offer the necessary details to inform us of terms and conditions. We must be particularly cautious about this move because the Central Bank has proved itself to be entirely incapable of doing its job. We do not know what the budget sheets of the major banks look like and what liabilities Irish taxpayers now undertake. The guarantee must be underpinned by further conditions and we must have details of these.

When the Government bailed out Allied Irish Bank in the 1980s after the ICI collapse, a levy on banks was introduced. A similar initiative must be included in this Bill to build a fund that will serve to meet the insurance requirements the banking sector clearly needs. If this guarantee does what it should the banks should make a profit from borrowing the State's name. They should pay significant compensation to the State for that security.

There should also be a commitment from bank management to forgo any bonuses over the time covered by this guarantee. Those individuals should consider cutting their enormous salaries. As a separate matter, there must be transparency in the banking system and better regulation.

While my party welcomes this decisive move we must point out that action could, and should, have been taken many years ago. As long ago as 2005, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service made recommendations on bank charges and interest rates. My party colleague, Deputy O Caoláin, was a member of the committee and initiated the process. The committee exposed the lack of transparency on the part of the banks with regard to customer charges and urged the need for further regulation of banks.

We must know what assurances will be given to ordinary people. That is one of the big questions we must ask the Minister. What assurance will be given to those people who have lost their jobs in the construction sector, who are mortgaged to the hilt, who face negative equity in their homes or are at risk of losing their homes? These people did not earn big bonuses over the boom years while others reaped millions. This guarantee will mean nothing to those people or to those whom the banks haul before the courts and who find themselves currently embroiled in court hearings because of mortgage default. When was the last time the Government sat through the night to come up with solutions for the problems of such people? When was the last time the Government showed the same type of commitment, sitting through the night to deal with the crisis in our health care and our school building programme or our unemployment rates that are spiralling out of control? I urge the Minister to show the same determination to those issues that he brings to this one.

It is imperative that the Government offers the same level of security now offered to the banks to ordinary people who are in debt to the same banks. Thus far, no bank has moved on any major developer to recoup loans but homes continue to be repossessed. I seek, along with this guarantee, an immediate moratorium on home repossession. Every step must be taken to ensure that people can re-schedule loans where required, defer payments on the capital sum borrowed, and negotiate interest-only payments for a designated period if required.

I support this Bill and hope the Minister will accept some of the amendments put forward, but I do not believe he will. The Bill could have been better but it is in the national interest and therefore my party supports it in this House as it did in the Dáil.