Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh. I welcome the opportunity to say a few words on banking. When one considers the banks over the past ten or 15 years, they have behaved abominably towards the people who invested in them and towards those who carried out their ordinary banking business through them. A number of years ago, an issue arose in respect of foreign address accounts, whereby people were caressed into investing in such accounts by the banks. Yet the banks have walked away scot free. Shareholders and taxpayers have taken the hit. Previously the ordinary person who invested in foreign address accounts, at the behest of the bank, were taken to the cleaners and the Government has let the banks off scot free. All the banks are still in place - none of them has gone bust. Anglo Irish Bank has been rescued by the taxpayer and probably the Irish Nationwide Building Society will also be rescued. AIB and the Bank of Ireland and their personnel are walking away scot free.

I previously asked where it all went wrong. I have put forward my views, but the Government has not said where it believes matters went wrong. It has blamed the crisis on a global issue. Surely we have to examine our position. We have to examine how taxes were raised, the amount of tax that was being collected from housing and property transactions and capital gains. Surely the Department of Finance must have seen that matters were going out of kilter during the past four or five years. They must have seen that, otherwise we need a drastic change in the Department of Finance. We should own up to this. We should put on record what was the thinking in the Department in this respect because matters went massively out of kilter. Our economy was skewed and taxes were derived from construction, development and building. We should have some statement from the Minister on this.

Anglo Irish Bank was the greatest disaster to hit this country because it helped fuel the economy. It drove AIB, Bank of Ireland, Irish Nationwide Building Society and others into competition. They had to seek new business. They had to find new ways of finding money, selling money and putting money into the economy. I said in this Chamber about 12 years ago that there were too many financial institutions in this country and I was laughed at. People said we needed competition, but it is unregulated competition that has put us where we are today. In Castlebar, from where I come, there are 14 places where one can get, borrow or invest money. Surely it was and is unsustainable for a town the size of Castlebar, with a population of 12,000 to 14,000, of which there are many similar sized towns throughout the country, to have that number of financial institutions trading in money. There is no question about it. One cannot have 14 or 15 of the most valuable pieces of property in small towns such as Castlebar competing against each other. That must be examined.

I feel very sorry for ordinary people, whether they work in the public or private sector, who had wage increases during the past number of years and then had their wages drastically cut during the past year and half. They had budgeted for extra mortgages, perhaps for a second home, a new car or the security of their family in making provision for third level education. Those people are now under enormous pressure and something will have to be done for them. The mortgages these people have in most cases are enormous. If a general election was called, we would hear some concrete proposals from the Government side but as of now it does not have any proposals. The Minister must examine the provision of long-term mortgages, whether they be 50 or 90 year mortgages. I urge the Minister to examine if 50 or 90 year mortgages could be introduced. Such mortgages have been introduced in some countries. Spain has recently examined the introduction of them. I do not see any reason that cannot be done here for the hard-pressed people who are under enormous pressure trying to provide for their families, for education provision and so forth.