Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, before section 2, to insert the following new section:

2.—The remuneration of any officer, employee or director of any financial institution to which funds are paid out of the National Pensions Reserve Fund under this Act shall not exceed the sum of €250,000.

This relates to one of the core provisions Fine Gael wants to see in this legislation, namely, some block on the remuneration of senior bank officials under this legislation. There is no reason in the world that the Government cannot fix this and deal with bank officials' remuneration. On other occasions in the course of the debate on the economy and the bank recapitalisation, I have raised the issue of people who are stuck with fixed interest mortgages. I raised it again last night. The bank recapitalisation plan is costing taxpayers €7 billion. We are using all the 1% income levy, which normally goes towards looking after social welfare and public sector pensions, to recapitalise the banks for this year and next year. All the money from the civil and public servants' pension levy, which the Government passed into law last week, is going directly towards recapitalisation of the banks. Yet there seems to be no give from the banks regarding what they might be able to do for their customers, the ordinary people of Ireland.

Fixed rate mortgages are at a much higher rate now. Somebody who took out a mortgage a year or two ago and got a fixed rate for four or five years pays up to 6% interest. The situation has changed dramatically in that time and people are paying huge repayments on their mortgages. When I raised this last night the best the Fianna Fáil representatives could come up with is that this is a contract, and they are therefore happy to see the customer being screwed by the banks. It could be made part of the recapitalisation programme that the banks would give customers the opportunity to come out of these fixed rate contracts if they wish. It is possible that some customers may wish to stay with these fixed rate contracts, but as a gesture, this should be put forward by the Minister.

The silence is deafening from the Minister for Finance, the Taoiseach and other Ministers on this issue, although it has been raised a few times in this House. I would like the Minister to examine it. Will the Government give serious consideration to putting a proposal on this to the banks? Will it look at some way of getting those who have fixed rate mortgages, which cost them from €200 to €350 per month depending on the size of their mortgages, out of them, especially since the Government has hit them with a fairly significant income levy in the past few weeks? Many of the people affected by the levy have this type of mortgage.

There must be a cap on executives' pay in the banks that are being recapitalised. The impression is given is that the Government is saying no bank will fail. This is being picked up by senior bank executives as meaning they may do as they like because the Government will not challenge them. The Minister of State can speak about preferential shares and ordinary shares, and 25% of this and 25% of that, and state the Minister is charging the banks 8% for this money. If there is an 8% cost to the banks, what is the cost to the Government for borrowing that money at this time?

There is also a need for the Government to show its back teeth in its dealings with the banks, to show that not only is it representing taxpayers' interests but that it is also prepared to stand up for customers of the banks and to show that the banks, just like all of us, must pay for this over the next couple of years.

This is an awful crisis. We have seen the way a blue-chip stock, which is what banks were always considered to be, simply disappeared off the face of the earth. It is a crisis beyond proportion. The public is angry because it cannot really fathom the size of this crisis and how it was delivered to them by a few individuals motivated more by greed than anything else.

When the Minister of State responds I want to hear that the Government is serious about taking on these issues. I ask him not to give me the response that these individuals, if they are not paid €1 million or €2 million per year, will go somewhere else. There are few places to go for senior bank executives, given the track record of some of them.