Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will share two and a half minutes with Senator Ward.

I welcome the Minister. It is great to have him in the Chamber to update us on the future of banking. Today's world is different compared to the world of one or two years ago when we had an economy with close to full employment and everything had been done to bring it back to financial stability.

The Minister spoke about how he had acted to support businesses and people in terms of banking over the past year. The payment breaks were welcome and had an impact. The Minister also spoke about senior executive accountability under the SEAR and how we needed to rebuild trust. Consolidation of competition points to heavy regulation of the banking sector but also raises concerns about competition. How does he propose increasing competition in banking over the next one to two years?

Speaking as someone from Roscommon and Galway, this is about credit unions and post offices. There have been local closures and banking is changing. Technology is important and it is great to see National Broadband Ireland's plan being rolled out. Would the Minister believe that half of all premises in Roscommon are in the intervention area? Some 3,000 of those have now been surveyed. Broadband is crucial and we need to see the roll-out happening over the next one to two years.

That we have a high level of household savings has been mentioned. This morning on Radio 1, the Irish culture of investing in property was discussed. How can we encourage investment in equity as well? I worked in innovation and with start-ups previously. How do we support Irish businesses, including start-ups and entrepreneurs, and encourage people to consider that type of saving? Innovation is how we will develop.

There was a jobs announcement for Roscommon and east Galway today. Just as the economy is slowly opening up and bringing back hope, we saw an announcement of 50 jobs for Roscommon and 20 for Galway. There is hope. Businesses are doing their best and are pulling ahead. We need to support them and ensure that they are competitive and innovative.