Ivana Bacik (Independent)

He is referring to credit control in France. It is a bit like the Boston or Berlin model. There seems to be merit in providing for something a little more concrete than guidelines to banks to free up lending. There should be some strengthening of that in the Bill.

Amendment No. 64 is tabled by Fine Gael and it relates to section 210. That section allows the Minister to issue guidelines on lending practices and procedures to facilitate the availability of credit. It is something to which I referred on Second Stage because I am not sure it is strong enough to ensure that credit will flow again. Amendment No. 64 provides that guidelines would be approved by the Oireachtas committee on NAMA. I am glad to see the Minister has accepted that principle in his own amendment No. 63. That amendment states that "The Minister shall cause a copy of guidelines issued under subsection (1) to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as practicable." That is welcome because it seems to accept in principle the need for scrutiny by the Oireachtas of the consequence of NAMA, which is whether it has facilitated the banks in lending again. Once that principle is accepted, it would be preferable to go further and provide for an Oireachtas committee, along the lines of the oversight committee proposed by Senator White in amendment No. 1, that would scrutinise the guidelines under section 210. We are all agreed on the importance of section 210 and what it will allow, which is for the Minister to review lending practices and procedures by banks.

The core purpose of this group of amendments is to ensure that the banks are lending again in the interests of the public good, rather than stockpiling cash reserves in their own interests and the interests of their shareholders. We are all agreed on the need to ensure that they no longer act in their own self interest.

I referred on the Order of Business to Ulster Bank's current restructuring programme and the IBOA concern that the new contracts being offered to staff will help to develop a workplace culture based on the old model in which they are encouraged to go along with aggressive policy selling to increase their low pay through commissions and other rewards. The IBOA has rightly stated that we should see a return to the traditional culture of banking. The ethical framework for banks to which Deputy Burton referred in the Dáil is something on which the public need to be reassured. Senator White has rightly pointed out that the public are no longer willing to accept the Minister saying "trust me". We need to ensure that the banks are seen to act in the public interest, and these amendments are an attempt to ensure that the banks will be scrutinised to make sure that they are acting in the public interest, ethically and in accordance with what we might describe as a traditional, old fashioned culture of banking. Amendment No.1 seeks to ensure a regular review of the operation of NAMA to ensure that it is operating in the public interest.