Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support the points made by Senator Ó Murchú. I have followed the case very closely since I was a young boy, and I am delighted the pardon, which is long overdue, will be granted. It was a tragic case and it was very sad that the man was hanged incorrectly. Whether it is appropriate to make statements in the House is a legal matter, but if it can be done, I would welcome it.

I wish to raise the issue of banking charges. People no longer have free transaction banking with the three main banks in the country, which they all promised when they established Internet banking. We now have a cartel in place whereby the banks change their transaction charges in unison. This is causing great difficulty for people, particularly those with small amounts of money in their accounts. Most of the banks now require people to maintain balances of at least €1,500 in their accounts to allow any free transaction banking. In some cases the banks require more. We were promised free banking when the main banks encouraged us to move away from attending counters to do transactions. The counters have been replaced by machines and very few staff work in any bank in the country. I saw recent reports that one of our main banks is speaking about letting go another 70 staff. The three main banks now charge for everything done on the Internet. One of the banks is better than the other two, but they are working together in a cartel. Consumers are being badly treated, and the Central Bank has a role in this as it is supposed to implement a fair consumer system for banking. I call on Leader to bring this matter to the attention of the Minister for Finance in order that he can request the Central Bank to carry out an inquiry into the increase in banking charges over the past five years.