Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to invite the Minister for Finance to the House for two reasons. We have all listened to roaring and bawling about the director of the Bank of Ireland, Mr. Richie Boucher. I know I am not allowed to say his name. He is the director and his name is in the public domain. With all of the other bailed out banking boys who have brought us to our knees, he appeared before the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform last week. It is hilarious that he spoke about the Bank of Ireland as a commercial enterprise. How could it possibly be a commercial enterprise, given that the people have put ¤4 billion into it? It is absolutely hilarious. He treated the members of the finance committee of these Houses as if they were boys at a corner. It was a masterful performance, on which I congratulate him. We should really take a leaf out of his book. I have listened to debates in the Upper and Lower Houses about bankers, insurance salesmen, directors and guys in other positions who are making fortunes from their revolting pensions.

I would like to ask the Minister for Finance a few questions when he comes here. We are reminded every day about a tycoon who is now in Mountjoy Prison for contempt of court, having put assets beyond the reach of the banks. The country's pillar banks - Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland - are putting people's lives, hopes, dreams and assets beyond their reach. That is what they are doing and we are wasting our time here by bawling at them, as it is like throwing snowballs at haystacks. What should we do? I have a solution for the Minister. If legislators - Senators and Deputies - really want to challenge the behaviour of the banks, we have to play them at their own game. How do we do this? We should follow our own money out of the banks. We should take our savings and all of our money out and put them in another bank, the credit union or the post office. We should pay our bills from another vantage point, as if we keep doing what we are doing, we will continue to be treated by the banks as if we were chattels.

Like another Senator who spoke, I would like the Minister to explain how, having worked for 30 years on a contract, my pension and tax expectations were changed overnight at the stroke of a pen. It was called the universal social charge.

This happened to every other member of our society but it did not happen to the bankers. I want the Minister for Finance to come to the House and explain the details to me. Then I will know I am sitting in the Upper House of the Parliament, not at a corner.