Larry Butler (Fianna Fail)

We should demand that the banks pass on the 0.5% reduction in interest rates, which is especially welcome for hard pressed house owners. This will also help to reduce inflation. The Minister of Finance must intervene and say that the banks must reduce interest rates when the European Central Bank has done so. That is vital, because the householder has been hard pressed over the past year as interest rates have increased on a regular basis, sometimes every month, whether by a quarter per cent, a half per cent, or whatever. The situation now is that the price of oil is falling, interest rates are moving in the right direction and inflation is reducing. When the unions make up their minds on accepting the national wage agreement——