Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to respond to some of the comments made by Senator O'Donnell in regard to the Governor of the Central Bank and the mortgage market. I agree with her that we need a robust debate on the banking sector and I have called for that on a number of occasions. We cannot go back to the way things were. There is no alternative now for people on low incomes such as there was back in the 1970s and 1980s. The mutual societies are gone. The Industrial Credit Corporation, the Agricultural Credit Corporation, the EBS and all of those organisations where people on lower level incomes could borrow are gone. We are now left with the two or three banks that run banking and must wake up and deal with that reality.

In the context of the ESRI's latest economic commentary, it is gratifying to see that not only -----