Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. Aontaím go hiomlán leis na Seanadóirí a dúirt gur ceart go mbeadh daoine agus custaiméirí in ann a gcuid gnó a dhéanamh leis na mbainc trí Ghaeilge, más féidir. Tá sé an-éasca do na bainc rudaí a chur ar bun do dhaoine mar sin. Tá sé sin an-tábhachtach ar fad.

At one level or another, our banking system is dysfunctional. The Minister and I have had this discussion a number of times. Part of the dysfunction is that we also protect people in their homes. That is tremendously important, but we must find a balance somewhere between the fact that the banks occupy a very privileged position in our economy and the fact that they are not providing a service that they should to the citizens and residents of this country. There is too much of a gap.

When the Tánaiste appeared before us the week before last, he mentioned that we should be considering using credit unions as a route to a community banking model. Mention has been made of Germany's Sparkassen model. Regrettably, I do not believe it would fit in the short term. It would require a significant amount of investment and time before it would be ready to go on stream. Local authorities in this jurisdiction do not have the requisite powers to operate in the way they do in Germany's decentralised federal system. We cannot simply transfer the model. However, we have a network of credit unions throughout the country. They do good work, meet the gaps left by the pillar banks and provide credit and services to people in communities. There is room to expand the remit of credit unions and give them the space to provide more services, including mortgages. Although they can provide mortgages in certain instances, it is only up to a certain threshold that in, for example, the Dún Laoghaire area is far short of what houses cost.

I would love to hear the Minister say that we can consider a much broader banking model.The Central Bank needs to be as much a consumer advocate as it is a regulator. At the moment, it is, in my respectful opinion, doing neither as well as it could. We need to agitate for the people who need banking services in this country and we need to create banks that serve the community and deliver services that people need as local businesses, but also as individuals who want to buy houses and have homes.