Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are not paying attention to the real issue, the biggest issue in the country, the greatest issue in every house, the only issue for every worker in the country and the most pronounced for every business, that is, the behaviour of the banks. We have gone crazy about it and into a kind of silent stupor. We spend three weeks talking about a shopkeeper in Kilcar and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. While I agree what was done was wayward, unnecessary and stupid in the extreme, we have people roaring around the place about cronyism. However, if Fianna Fáil Members really want to ventilate the subject of cronyism, I suggest they re-read about TASC's mapping of the golden circle when they will learn about the interlocking of multiple directorships, the remuneration, pensions and fees for all of the boys, banks and State companies. It was money, money, money. If I am correct, Deputy Micheál Martin, one of the loudest speakers recently on the idea of cronyism and modern art, was the worthwhile leader of Fianna Fáil, with four portfolios during all of this period when there was a lack of governance and a general swindle. Four portfolios - it defies belief.

It is the banks that have the people choked. The people understand the necessity for water which, by the way, we have polluted. We have not looked after it, although we understand it needs to be looked after. We know that it is precious and needs to be preserved well, but that is not the problem. The problem is that the people do not have the money to pay for it and the reason they do not have the money to pay for it is they are being choked by mortgages and loans. They do not have proper legal recourse to tenancy or rent arrangements. The universal social charge is at the top of every single cent they earn to pay for the wayward banks, on top of the €3.7 billion we gave to them, in addition to the people's savings, yet we are still being choked by interest rates, which is financial thuggery at its best.

Will Senators, please, place their eyes on the most important issue in every house, home and business in the country?

I plead with Senators to represent people and stand up against the banks. Let me tell Senators what Mr. Honohan has done this morning. He has reinvented fire. He has run out and told us that he is limiting loan amounts for mortgages. If he had looked back at practice in the 1980s, he would know people used to get two and a half times their salary as a loan. That is all they were allowed when they came to a bank. Mr. Honohan is now reinventing the wheel, but it is a bit too late to discover fire, when what he is doing was discovered in the 1980s when people were allowed borrow two and a half times their salary.

I urge Senators to think of the big issue, which is the way the banks are treating people - business people, mothers and fathers, mortgage dealers and people who owe money. How they treat them is disgraceful, but not one of us is talking about it. Banks are pulling interest rates out of the air and we are sitting here talking about somebody up in Kilcar and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, an issue I agree was wrong and wayward.