Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach who caught me unawares, which is unusual for me. I propose an amendment to the Order of Business again today because I am anxious the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, comes into the House to discuss community banking. I may be going on about this but there is not a Senator in this House or a Deputy in the Dáil who does not understand that we have created an Ireland with a "new poor" of people who earn between €25,000 to €60,000. These people have trained and educated themselves but they cannot afford to live and to stay in their own country. They are nurses, radiographers, occupational therapists, teachers and tradesmen. They cannot even afford the idea of saving for a house or apartment. We seem to consistently capitulate in this country. The universities did it to the pillar banks.

There was a Private Members' motion in the Dáil on community banking, that is, the Sparkasse bank in Germany, the Kiwibank, or a combination with aspects of all of them. I want the Minister to come in here and tell me where he is in these negotiations and what is going on because the tentacles of his Department move right out into the society I am talking about. Senators are seeing it on the ground every day, as are Deputies. I am not getting answers on this.

We have one of the best post office networks in Europe and these community banks could live well and the interest rates could be competitive with the pillar banks which do what they like. Now we cannot even find a human being in the bank branch and still the interest rates go up. Young people cannot save the €20,000 and they do not have a mammy and daddy to give it to them, as the Taoiseach said. I cannot afford to give it to my son and neither can many parents. It is a disgraceful down payment from any pillar bank. Some 95% of banks in Ireland are commercial but only 12% in Germany are. What does that tell us? We are afraid of the banks and competition. It is an area for post offices because they have tentacles going out to the people. It is a perfect place to put it but I want an argument on it and I want us to decide if it is a good or a bad thing and look at how we could do it. How is it that New Zealand did it and all of the money went back into the communities? There is plenty of profit for everybody.

There was not one person on the radio recently, after Mr. Drumm was incarcerated, who said they would put money in the pillar banks. If I had £20 I would not go near them. I would rather give it to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. This is a bit of a rant but it is a real one in that I want the Minister come in here and argue about the community banks. A Private Members' motion on them was passed in the Dáil. I want us to talk about them and see if the Seanad could do something to create a channel for this and not have the pillar banks dictating the lives, hopes and expectations of every young person, educated or uneducated, who is trying to build a life in Ireland.