Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the proposers of the motion and all Members who have spoken about this problem. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Joe Costello. In the greater Dublin area, which the Minister knows well, a house that cost the equivalent of €100,000 in 1997 rose to €500,000 and nobody's income kept up with that bubble in property prices. We are now trying to address this now.

The leaking of the guidelines was designed to annoy people. We need to get the legislation up and running as quickly as we can. It might be that somebody might watch Sky Sports and do nothing else. He is doing much better than the banks, as he is living within his budget and to say that he cannot watch Sky Sports is absurd. Senator Bacik has made a very good point on child care. The leaked guidelines would require a woman working outside the home and earning less than the cost of child care to give up her career and pension prospects and as Senator Bacik pointed out that child care might last for two or three years. If that is in the guidelines, I hope the Minister will get to work on them.

I acknowledge that the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter moved and accepted many amendments and was in the Seanad until 10 p.m. on occasion. Credit is due to him, but we need more action now. The MABS report is quite shocking and shows that many of the people in debt were older than we had thought because they had bought products from equity release, as they were encouraged to borrow more. It would have been expected, and MABS referred to this, they would have paid off the mortgage. There must be a general warning to beware of banks bearing false gifts. We need to reform the banking system significantly. I do not think it has changed at all in recent times. I recall banks boards comprising people such as James Minahan, Patrick Lynch, Louden Ryan who were eminent people in Irish economics and the banks moved away from choosing such people in their era of madness.

No. 25 on the Order Paper is Mortgage Credit (Loans and Bonds) Bill 2012. I mentioned to the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Brian Hayes that the banking crisis did not happen in Denmark. The Danish people would want to route the money through the existing banks, which are the banks that got us into trouble in the first instance. If Danske Bank would set up a different way of financing housing that would be useful. The destruction of the building society movement is very capably covered in the book about Michael Fingleton. The Educational Building Society was meant to be a co-operative and its principle was almost philanthropic, that is teachers with houses would give money to younger teachers to buy houses.

The corruption of the system into the worst form of banking is an episode which must not be allowed to be repeated.