Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have to respond to some of the arguments that have been made by Senator Higgins. She asked about how the State can benefit from the upside. We are majority shareholders in AIB, we nearly entirely own Permanent TSB, and we are minority shareholders in Bank of Ireland, albeit that is decreasing quickly. That is how we participate in the upside. The Senator wants to know how we can benefit from any enhanced profitability those banks can make in the future. We are majority shareholders in two of the three banks so that is the way we do it. As those banks become more profitable the value of the banks increases and our shareholding increases so if those banks are in a position to pay dividends in the future if they become more profitable then the State is a large recipient of those dividends.

The Senator referred to de-risking and she outlined her concerns on that. De-risking is leading to lending activity happening that in the absence of the State putting in place this guarantee would otherwise not be happening, particularly when it comes to retrofitting and in the role we played in providing credit guarantee schemes during darker moments in the Covid crisis. I thank the Senator for her support of that scheme in 2020. As a critical part of the de-risking we do we crowd in private capital and provide funding for different schemes.Multiples of that funding are then lent out because banks are in a position to use the assurances we give to support more credit or investment than they would be able to do in the absence of those assurances.

I will not let Senator Gavan's assertion about class politics slide. His party voted against an amendment that was about providing more rental accommodation and more units that are currently-----