Lorraine Higgins (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this matter on the Adjournment. It is important that we establish whether any staff in senior management in all the State-owned banks, including AIB, Permanent TSB, Bank of Ireland, EBS and Irish Nationwide, converted any of their variable mortgages to tracker mortgages in the six-month period before the date of the Government-funded bank guarantee or immediately thereafter. This, as we all know, was a very important time in Ireland's economic history. It was a time at which Irish banking debt was tied to the ordinary taxpayer, a decision that my party, the Labour Party, was rightly opposed to. The reality is that, at the time, the people of Ireland bailed out the bankrupt banks of the country and were left with numerous austerity budgets as a result. I commend the Minister of State and all his colleagues in government on the work they have done in trying to strike a difficult balance and to ease the burden on the people. Did the management or employees of the banks now owned by the State try to seek a benefit for themselves by converting their mortgages from variable-rate mortgages to tracker mortgages, which have transpired to be a cheaper option? I look forward to the Minister's response.