Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

This is the type of cosy cartel that has us where we are today. Perhaps there are people in Fianna Fáil who are embarrassed by the link between some bankers and members of the Government during the past 13 years. They should be. The failed policy has brought us to where we are.

People discuss stopping the blame game, but that game must be out there if we are to learn how to move forward. The banks lost the run of themselves. There was no regulation. The former Minister, Mr. McCreevy, must also be held to account. A failed Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats ideology has driven us to this point.

I told a number of my friends who are business people that the Seanad would be debating the banks today. To a person, they told me that they could not do business. They can lodge their money at 3.50 p.m. every day and they must pay for everything, including cheques and back-dated statements. They told me the banks were impossible to deal with and would not do business.

I know of people who have overdrafts. As the Minister of State knows, the pendulum swings. People have credit one week. The next, when they are pushed to the maximum levels of their overdrafts, their bank manager rings them to ask them to come in and discuss term loans. The purpose of NAMA and the recapitalisation of the banks is, to use a great phrase, to allow liquidity to flow to small and medium-sized enterprises. Like Senator Alex White, I know this is not occurring. Bank charges and mortgage rates are all increasing. People owe money.

The banks have suddenly woken up to the light and decided that they do not want to get stung or be left holding the baby. What are they doing? They are passing everything on to the ordinary person struggling to survive. All Government comment on this issue is to the effect that we must increase our exports, expand our manufacturing base and develop the smart economy. However, the banks will not lend money and are putting the squeeze on ordinary people.

I welcome Mr. Elderfield's comments, both in general and those he made at the Joint Committee on Economic and Regulatory Affairs. He has indicated that he requires additional staff. His admission in this regard indicates that when compared to the position internationally, the system of banking regulation in this country is not being enforced to an appropriate standard.

Is the Government which is led by Fianna Fáil going to give the banks an easy ride or a free pass? Mr. Fingleton still owes €1 million. Last week Mr. Boucher was about to be given a €1.5 million top-up in respect of a pension that will realise over €300,000 per year. In what world do these people live? What society can sustain the payment of that type of retirement package to a person who, with his colleagues in the banking sector, got us into the mess in which we find ourselves? Ordinary taxpayers are upset by the fact that the Government is bailing out the banks and that it is they who will be obliged to shoulder the burden of payment. The people want the banks to lend money, jobs to be created, the lifeblood of the economy restored and those who caused this mess to be held to account in the strongest way possible.