Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to address the lack of corporate citizenship on the part of the banking sector. Day after day I listen to the news and hear the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government being criticised for his failure to act on housing provision. Thousands of houses cannot be built overnight at the drop of a hat, but there are houses for sale. In the last couple of weeks I encountered a young couple who had been handed €30,000 by their families as a deposit on an apartment that they would have been able to buy. They had been paying €1,500 a month in rent for seven years and never missed a payment. They had told the bank that they had received a gift of €30,000 and said they would like to buy an apartment. The actual cost of the mortgage would have been somewhere around €1,000 to €1,100 per month, resulting in a saving of €400 for the couple and the release of a rented apartment, but the bank had stated the couple had no record of saving, although they had been paying €1,500 a month in rent for seven years. It is time the banks rowed in behind the Minister for Finance who produced the help-to-buy scheme and the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government who is trying to solve the housing crisis and actually became good citizens. They were saved by citizens, but they have now turned around and started to focus on their shareholders, ignoring citizens. Will the Leader bring the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government to the House to discuss how we can force the banks to behave like good corporate citizens? The quicker we do this, the better as what they are doing is appalling. I will finish by saying I support the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government in what he is doing. I do not want it to be taken as an endorsement of his future leadership qualities, but he is doing a good job. It is time we backed off and left him alone to try to finish it.