Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

I note that 2,500 AIB staff have been asked to subscribe to a voluntary redundancy package. I agree with the sentiments expressed to the effect that there are many people within AIB who cannot wait to get out the door because of what has taken place in recent years. I am pleased that finally the nightmare will be over for those people and they can take a package and go.

I note there has been some recruitment in AIB in recent months as well. This sends out a bad message. On the one hand, the bank is seeking to get rid of 2,500 staff and, on the other, it is recruiting people. The messages are unclear. The reality is that the 2,500 figure is the headline figure. The ordinary decent people in the banking system are being scapegoated for what occurred in the past whereas the delinquents who were running AIB at the top, including the board of directors and the senior management who are still in place and who continue to receive vast salaries, have not been held to account. What are the public interest directors in AIB doing? They should come before the House. There are people on the board of directors of the major banks of the country representing the people. Let them come in and account for themselves and let them give us a report on exactly what they are doing to serve the public interest.

Every day of the week we hear of people struggling to get credit, overdrafts and mortgages. That is not the kind of banking system I want to see in my country. We urgently require a constructive debate on banking to examine what occurred in the past. This House must lead the fight to ensure that we have the best regulated banking system to drive job creation instead of hindering it, as it is doing at the moment.