Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am asking the Leader for a debate on this because if there is one thing worse than a public monopoly, it is a private monopoly. The issue should be debated fully and some of the pseudo-arguments being put out should be analysed, challenged and disposed of.

I also want to raise the issue that was raised briefly yesterday by one of my colleagues, namely, the issue of the Central Bank making decisions with regard to controlling lending to people who seek to provide a house from their own resources. Obviously, many of us here who did that throughout our lifetimes could not have done it without access to credit. I do not deny that prudence is needed in the area but I feel that the Central Bank has shown itself to be disconnected from promoting a system where people of reasonable and average means will be able to aspire to purchasing a house for themselves. Many people would be put outside it by this particular approach. I think we need a full debate here with the Minister involved during the period during which the Central Bank is involved in consultation. It is easy for people in the Central Bank, who are on high salaries and have never worked anywhere other than the public service, to be making decisions such as this. They have never had to meet the challenges that many working people out there, particularly in the private sector, have had to meet.