Phil Prendergast (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State. Since the Minister for Finance gave an update in the Dáil yesterday on the cost of the banking and building bailout, some 100 babies have been born with a debt of €9,000 hanging around each of their necks. That is the start in life this Fianna Fáil Government has given them and the 1.5 million more babies who will be born in this country over the next 20 years. These children will grow up deprived of the best possible health treatment, education and standards of living. This is already happening, as the Minister of State is aware. Health care budgets are being slashed, we are going into reverse on class sizes, children with special needs are losing their special needs assistants, the cost of going to third level college is escalating and one in every three young people cannot get work.

Charles Haughey, Liam Lawlor and Ray Burke, not to mention other Fianna Fáil politicians who are less well known, fiddled this country out of millions of euro in the past. It was a drop in the ocean compared with what this group of Fianna Fáil leaders has done. When I reflect on the appeal of the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, on 14 October 2008 for us to do our patriotic duty, I find it even more repugnant now than I did then. This Government is helping a small coterie of its business buddies to steal at least €32 billion from their fellow countrymen. Back bench Deputies and Senators are in cahoots with this great banking and building swindle. It is the biggest robbery in the history of the State. The biggest victims are young people. The Government is taking money from their pockets and putting it into the wallets of builders and bankers. It is uncomfortable to think this will continue for years to come. It is Robin Hood in reverse, stealing from the poorer and giving to the rich.

The Minister for Finance announced last December that he intends to introduce a new social contribution levy in the next budget. Will he be honest enough to introduce a bank contribution levy as well? Young people will be paying such a levy for years to come as we attempt to come up with €32 billion and probably more. Will it buy us control over bankers' salaries? It is unlikely, given that we have seen pay increases in Anglo Irish Bank and NAMA in the past fortnight. Has it given us control over bank policy on lending? It has not, because businesses cannot get credit. More and more small businesses are going out of business every day because they cannot get credit to keep going. Will this approach give us control over bank policy on lending? Will it give us control over bank policy on charges? AIB has just increased its mortgage lending rates and the other banks are sure to follow. Will it give us a more competitive banking system? I do not think so, as non-Irish banks are fleeing the market and leaving the field open for the old cartel to do what it does best. People will not have a choice.

The Minister will tell us that new regulations are in place to ensure what happened before cannot happen again. We have already seen that the regulations are protecting the markets and not the real economy. Yesterday, we were told the banks will have to meet a core equity ratio of 8% by the end of the year. That means the money the Government has given the banks will sit in their vaults doing nothing other than supporting their share prices. That would not have happened had we nationalised the banks, as the Labour Party suggested in 2008. Countless experts - far more than those who agreed with the Government's policy - agreed with us. Speaking of agreement, the Government obtained the agreement of its colleagues for NAMA on the basis that the banks would pay a 30% discount, but it was way out in that regard. It was wrong by more than 50%.