Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

I agree with Senator Ó Murchú's comments to the extent that yesterday we discussed a motion on the issue of rare diseases and the need for a proactive Government policy to deal with it. There was broad agreement across the House on how the issue should be approached. Likewise with the jobs issue, everyone in the House regardless of party affiliation has one aim, that is, to get people back to work.

Decisions must be made about creating efficiencies in respect of the banks. Let us consider the workload in the banks now compared to four or five years ago when more than 90,000 houses were being sold per annum and an equivalent number of mortgages or re-mortgages were issued. This has all changed and, therefore, the same workload is no longer in place. I know of several young people who have commenced employment with Allied Irish Banks, AIB, in the past three months. The information I am getting from them is to the effect that a significant number of young people are working in the banking sector and are keen to face up to the challenge and to deal with the issues facing the banks and the country. On the other hand, there are many people in the banking structure who believe they have made their contribution and who wish to take a break from the type of work they have been involved in. Such people are looking for an opportunity and the banks are approaching this in a constructive way. They must deal with it. We should remember that we are no longer dealing with shareholders' money, we are now dealing with taxpayers' money. This is being approached in a constructive way and in the best interests of the banking sector.

If we are to debate this issue - we should do so - I wish to raise one concern. During the good times bank employees contacted customers and offered them money to buy shares in that bank. I know of one case where a person was given €1.5 million from AIB to buy AIB shares. Another young man came to me in recent weeks and informed me that he was given €50,000 to buy AIB shares. He was invited to come in and sign the forms to enable him to buy the shares. This offer came from AIB and was to buy AIB shares. We should bring in amending legislation to outlaw the practice of a bank giving money to people to borrow to buy the same bank's shares.