Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Our finance spokesperson, Senator Darragh O'Brien, indicated at the outset that we will support the motion; that is our consistent approach. When anyone speaks about banking they say that the major issue affecting people is the pressure banks are putting people under and the lack of lending in the economy. The Government has provided support to the banking sector in this State but that support is not being replicated through lending to the citizens. The banks are not making money available in cases where it should be made available. The only people lending money at the moment, whether in the small and medium enterprise sector or to individuals trying to upgrade their homes, for example, is the credit union institution.

The banks have questions to answer, and I agree with Senator Gilroy who asked about the public interest directors who sit on the boards of these banks. The irony of the role of the public interest directors is that they have a fiduciary requirement to the bank but they are supposed to represent the taxpayer, and I am not sure how they can balance both responsibilities effectively and efficiently on behalf of the taxpayer. I do not believe it can be done and therefore the State, and the Department of Finance in particular, has an enforcement role that is not being expedited as effectively as should be the case.

The issue of bankers' pay arises but that is only one part of the problem. There are 27 bankers in the State in receipt of remuneration of at least ¤500,000. One hundred and sixty seven former bankers employed at a senior level are in receipt of pensions of over ¤100,000. At the same time those banks were providing loans to individuals based on available valuations but if a bank provided a loan on a property of, say, ¤200,000 and that person is now in negative equity and mortgage arrears, the bank has at least some responsibility to help cover the cost associated with the repayments of that loan if the individual concerned cannot meet the repayment.

One in four mortgage holders in the State is struggling and nothing is being done to support those mortgage holders. While we are happy to support this motion the Government must take cognisance of the fact that 25% of mortgage holders are struggling. The banks will put additional pressure on them in the new year, as we heard last week, and that will exacerbate the problem.

On the issue of the payment caps and the ongoing review, I understand Mercer's have been commissioned by the Minister for Finance to undertake a review of the salaries being paid in financial institutions and that that report was due back before Christmas. What steps, if any, will the Minister of State or the Minister for Finance take to implement any recommendations in the report? If he finds that the report is weak, would he be willing to consider bringing forward legislative proposals to legislate for bankers' pay in the State in the new year because it is an issue that must be addressed?

The current chairman of AIB was directly involved in the HSBC scandal which rocked America in recent months where over $2 billion was paid back by that institution to the American Government after a report which was commissioned by the United States Senate. The individual who is now the chairman of AIB was named and damned in that 330 page report. I have read some of the report and my question is whether the Minister, following that report which I am sure his Department has read, has full confidence in the current chairman of AIB Bank.