Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We need to reform banking, to increase the capital of the banks, to move to equity and to separate utility banking from casinos. This is happening in the United States of America and the United Kingdom and I request the Leader to ask the Tánaiste to supply, through our diplomats in those countries, information on what is going on in terms of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform and the Consumer Protection Act, the Brown-Vitter banking legislation, the Volckler Rule and the banking reform Bill in the UK, which is now on Report Stage. We should not rely on Europe because this is not a problem in Europe. Germany has spent about 3% of GDP bailing out banks, while we have spent almost 60% doing so. This is our problem and it must be solved here.

I welcome the determination of the Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, to do so but we need something about banking on the A list, preferably, or at least on the B or C list. This unreformed sector has drained the Exchequer and society of vast sums of money for nearly five years. There must be a sense of urgency about this. The Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, has that sense but I am not so sure that his advisers or officials in the Department of Finance share it. We need a Bill to regulate this sector because the problem of the high earnings could be solved then. Let those people gamble with their own money by raising equity rather than being bailed out by the taxpayer when something goes wrong. The treatment of people in mortgage arrears could be addressed, as well as many of the other issues about which Members are concerned. These issues and problems can be solved if we move quickly, as the Minister of State intends to do, to adapt the best policies from the United States and the United Kingdom to regulate banks properly.

We must reverse the way in which supervision was removed from the banks. They have been insulting members of this Parliament and this entire society for a long time. The banking system must be properly supervised to ensure that these problems do not recur. It is essential that the permanent government shows some urgency and stops hanging around with the 26 other European Union countries. It must go to the countries where this problem started and where it is now being corrected. Our diplomats must funnel back the necessary information so that we are up to date on what is happening. This is urgent. Otherwise we will continue to have questions such as those raised by Senators Hayden and O'Brien this morning about the way that a rescued, highly-subsidised banking system abuses the rest of society.