Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will not follow any of my distinguished colleagues in terms of speaking on that subject. I am glad they are treating it sensitively. It is important that we await the outcome of the investigation. Obviously, it is a tragic case.

I welcome very much what Senator Darragh O'Brien mentioned in regard to the Bank of Ireland being able to raise ¤1 billion on the bond markets unaided. It is small step - a stumble in the right direction on the road to the normalisation of our banks. However, I am concerned, as are many other Members who have expressed their concern, about the bankers who are still in situ who were in place in retail banking in Ireland - I am talking about pillar banks - when they brought down our banks. It was a condition of the State guarantee of the banks that pay caps be observed and we know in specific instances that they are not. They are seriously out of kilter in some instances and this is an issue that must be addressed, apart form the pension pots, which are outlandish, and they should be brought to heel in that regard. The important point we want to enforce and recommend to the Minister is that while the banks are still dependent on State assistance, as both pillar banks are, they must play by the rules and they should be made play by them. I do not have a remedy for how that should be done, but it is not outside the bounds of the capabilities of the people who are dealing with this matter to ensure that will be the case as long as those banks are depending on the State guarantee When they are free of it, they can break away, as can the other banks. I will not say that they can do what they like, as nobody should be allowed to do what they like in a democracy.