Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Minister of State's response but I disagree that there is no significant risk in terms of investment banking in the Irish economy. All the banks are engaged in investment activity and they were all engaged in that activity during the crash. They were exposed internationally. The contagion that started with Lehman Brothers in the US indirectly affected all the pillar banks in Ireland as well. It caused a run on the world's financial system. That affected property prices and in turn caused the collapse in the retail side here. It was all interlinked, whether we like to admit it or not.

Ireland is a small player in this regard but there is a need to pursue the Commission's proposals at European level. I fully agreed with those proposals but the banking lobby succeeded in changing the Commission's mind. The banking lobby is one of the greatest lobbies in the world, and it is no different in Europe. It probably has more power in Brussels than the average small country. I am not sure what the Irish Government's thinking is when the finance Ministers meet at EU level, but I believe we must consider this separation. I agree it was retail banking in Ireland but the collapse here in 2008 was linked to what happened in North Dakota and North Carolina. The entire system was interlinked. That it happened was not the fault of the ordinary pensioner or the guy who borrowed to buy a buy-to-let property. They were not the problem. It was due to the philosophy of the bank on going after huge bonuses and huge returns on both the investment and retail sides.

That is my argument. Banks will be bailed out in the future unless this is addressed now. When they are bailed out, there is no way one can ring-fence the money from the taxpayer for just the retail side. The bank might pretend that it is only using it for retail but it is a single organisation with one chief executive officer, CEO, and one organisational structure.