Tom Shehan (Fine Gael)

I ask the Leader to request the Minister for Finance to come before the House to explain in a clear, concise manner the ramifications for ordinary account holders in the banks of the €2.7 billion fund which must be set aside in the Central Bank by 2020 to guarantee the bank guarantee scheme. The Central Bank must set aside €300 million per annum in the period from 2011 until 2020 for this purpose. The ramifications of this requirement for ordinary account holders include interest rate increases, further bank charges, etc. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister to the House to explain the position as I do not believe members of the public are aware of the fund, even if they will have noticed that interest rates are increasing virtually weekly. One hears about debt forgiveness and the pressure people are under to make their mortgage repayments but the elephant in the room is the bank charges which will hit every person who holds a bank account. One must bear in mind that we have only three banks and many more banks were operating in this State when the €2.7 billion fund was announced.