Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to express concern about the reports that the Government might be persuaded to take over Ulster Bank in this country.

As per the current edition of The Economist, Ulster Bank is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland which lost $13.7 billion in 2013 and paid out £576 million to its executives. We already have five zombie banks in public ownership - Anglo, EBS, AIB, Irish Nationwide, Irish Life and Permanent and acquiring another would be an extremely ill-advised investment.

I wish to express my concern about the article by Cliff Taylor in The Sunday Business Post last Sunday that AIB, which is about 98% owned by the taxpayer, paid over €100 million in consultancy fees to PwC who were the auditors to Bank of Ireland which also needed to be rescued in 2008. We need to have a thorough reform of financial services in Ireland, not just of the institutions I have mentioned but pension funds are in trouble, insurance companies require levies and even credit unions are in trouble. A major obstacle to the future development of the country is our failure to reform financial services.