Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

I join the call for an urgent and comprehensive debate on the economy. A meeting is planned today between the Taoiseach and the heads of the financial institutions. I appeal to the Leader to ensure the following issues of concern to the public are put on the agenda. The public needs to know that future interest rate reductions will be passed to the consumer immediately, that is, on the next day. The public also needs to know there will be a flexible attitude to people who are having difficulty with their mortgages and that credit facilities will be made available. The public knows that the chief executive officers and mandarins in the banks have caused huge difficulty for this country in terms of their exorbitant salaries and the reckless decisions they made in the financial sphere by allowing millions to be paid for sites without value, sites subject to planning permission and so forth. That waste and profligacy on the part of the banks has come home to roost. The banks must now exert a common-sense approach and demonstrate some compassion for consumers by passing on interest rate cuts and making credit available. The people urgently need to know that this will happen immediately.