Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I join other Senators in calling for a debate on banking. The closure of one of the country's main banks, as announced yesterday, will cause significant hardship for many people in the north east — not just workers in the bank but also customers who are currently availing of the service. We have also seen recent increases in mortgage interest rates, particularly those of Permanent TSB, and the failure of many banks to put money back into the economy and get credit moving again. A debate on this issue would be timely and I urge the Leader to arrange one.

I welcome the commitment of the G7 countries to cancel the debt owed to them by Haiti. However, the debt cancelled by the G7 is only a fraction of what Haiti owes to organisations such as the World Bank and the IMF. One of the impacts of this is that it will be much more difficult to reconstruct the country after the recent earthquake. Electricity prices will be higher and food supplies will be put in danger. I would like to see further debt cancellation. I urge the Minister and the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputies Martin and Power, to make representations at the highest level of the IMF and the World Bank in order to achieve this.