Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

I received a telephone call this morning from a friend of mine who is a blocklayer. He has received no offer of work since last September but in recent weeks he was encouraged by the fact that he received calls for quotations from six young couples living in his area who were contemplating building their first home. He was very much encouraged by that and he rang me at the time to say that perhaps the green shoots were finally beginning to emerge in his neck of the woods. However, he called me again this morning to say that he reverted to all these couples with a price and without exception every one of them told him that they had been refused a mortgage by their bank. These are people in relatively safe employment earning significant income to justify their being granted a mortgage but without exception every one of them was refused one.

What now have an economy that is in some kind of cryogenic suspended animation where we, the taxpayers, are pumping thousands of millions of our money into a banking system that simply refuses to allow one solitary cent of that to pass on to the real economy to people like this gentleman who are willing to get engaged and to get back working if they are given that opportunity.

I again request the Leader to arrange for an urgent debate on banking policy because taxpayers' money has not bought us one single modicum of influence on day-to-day banking policy. Our money is being used to shore up balance sheets day after day to avert nationalisation, which for a banker would be the most traumatic outcome possible. That is what they are trying to do. They are trying to stop that from happening by making their balance sheets look as healthy as possible. Not one cent of our money is being passed on to the people who, if given the opportunity, would be more than willing and capable of kick-starting this economy.