Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a number of issues. There has been recent notification from AIB and Bank of Ireland that they plan to charge negative interest on client accounts. This is money which people have saved and on which they have already paid tax. This includes client accounts in solicitors' practices. If my solicitor draws down a loan from the bank because I have purchased a property I immediately start paying my mortgage interest on that money but now I will also be paying between 0.5% and 0.65% interest on the money until it is transferred to the seller. This issue needs to be looked at. Transactions in solicitors' practices such as this should be exempt. We are going down a dangerous road with the banks whereby people who are saving money will be charged interest on their savings. I welcome the progress made towards a decision on the leaving certificate and the return of all children to the classroom. I am concerned that the voices of parents, particularly the parents of children in the schools of my own county, have not been heard and I have been contacted by a number of parents. At present, no post-primary school in my county is being represented by the National Parents Council that is in the talks. In fact, 85% of schools, or 612 out of 726, accounting for 340,000 parents, in either the Catholic Secondary Schools Parents Association or the ETB Schools National Parents Association are not part of the National Parents Council at present, which is a worrying situation. The ETB withdrew because of internal issues in October. The elected directors of the Catholic Secondary Schools Parents Association have been denied access to meetings and are not being informed of what has been discussed. This matter needs to be dealt with immediately.