Mattie McGrath: Criticises Banks, Calls for Stronger Bank Accountability
Mattie McGrath spoke during the Second Stage debate on the Sinclair Bank Individual Accountability Framework Bill 2022 and strongly criticised banks and the government response. He accused banks of 'running amok', condemned past bank guarantees and bailouts, and urged tighter rules, committee oversight and bans on officials moving into bank roles.
Main criticism of banks
He said the banks are "running amok" and described a cartel and monopoly in the sector. He warned that exits by institutions such as KBC will reduce competition and criticised fines as being paid with account holders' money while remaining minor compared with banks' profits.
Historic grievances - bank guarantee and bailout
He expressed regret for having voted for the bank guarantee, calling it his "biggest single political mistake" and described the later bailout as a "clean-out". He said Ireland borrowed from the IMF at 2.9% while paying 6% to others, argued bondholders were left untouched, and accused taxpayers of bearing the cost that will fall to future generations.
Legislative demands and conflicts of interest
He urged the bill to include a bar preventing politicians and senior Department of Finance officials from becoming advocates or advisors for banks after leaving public service. He also demanded that vulture funds be accountable to the Finance Committee and the Public Accounts Committee and complained that some departments refuse to appear before parliamentary committees.
Wider concerns - insurers and construction firms
He criticised perceived inaction on CRH, Roadster and PSE and the insurance sector, citing an example of a family pub unable to secure insurance after flooding. He characterised the proposed legislation as feeble and inept and said the public are "sick and tired" of the government being seen as a soft touch globally.
Calls for accountability and enforcement
He pressed for stronger oversight, meaningful penalties and greater willingness from the Department of Finance and the government to tackle banks, insurers and vulture funds. He said the Bill should create real accountability mechanisms and ensure departments and firms are answerable to parliamentary scrutiny.
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Goonaiseach, I appreciate your forbearance in that. We just stopped around and we didn't see it, so I thank you for allowing us in to speak on this Sinclair Bank Individual Accountability Framework Bill 2022 Second Stage. Kind of a mouthful, yes, Minister, but look, I want to repeat it, I have great respect for you, good time for you as a colleague in the backbenchers and now as the General Minister, but the banks are running amok, full stop, just running amok. And it seems to me now at this stage that governments wish to allow them to run. They'll introduce legislation and they'll kind of tell them this and tell them that, but there's a cartel in there, there's a monopoly in there. It's a very worrying situation now, Deputy Michael Cohns and Deputy Carl Lohan and myself attended a number of banks on behalf of customers, namely KBC, one of them, and they're exiting the country now, and now at us, the bank and others, so we're going to have less competition. But I'll never forget, and I'm tired of repeating it, the night of the bank guarantee, which I, well, my biggest single political mistake was voting for that, that night, and the pleading of the late Brian Linnard and others, but look, I pressed the button myself, we had no buttons that time, it was a physical vote. And why wouldn't they ever since? They just decided to create a crisis and put it all into a state of collapse and got bailed out or got a bank guarantee and debts written off. And then it came to the so-called bailout, which I described as the clean-out, and I voted against it. And our friends, now that your teacher was running off, admiring and beholding to the globalists in Europe, when the French and Germans are going to destroy our agriculture and other aspects as well, so we're very troubled European project now, as I'm concerned, and we're net losers now all over the place. But when we got so-called bailout, we got money from the IMF at 2.9%, and we paid 6% for our European friends. Can you imagine? At that stage, you had the bondholders as well, and insured as well. So they left all the way to the bank, because not only was the insureds not called in, the Irish taxpayers were the patsies, and your grandchildren, Minister, and my grandchildren, and their grandchildren probably won't ever have it paid off. It was an enormous, savage amount of money. And it was just pure unbelievable. And then, from that case, on back. And what we see happening in the last couple of years was totally distasteful. Retired members of this House and members of the European Parliament and different places are now advocates for the banks. And they're only out the door here a wet month or a wet week. Surely there must be legislation. In this legislation, we must have a barrier put in there that politicians and public servants who are in the Department of Finance and senior positions, that they can't become advocates, advisors, you name it what you like, they have a different name on it, for the banks. So this is putting the fox in charge of the Hinn House. So, Minister, you've got a lot of work to do, but I don't see any appetite within the Department of Finance, within your government, to deal with the banks, to track our marketplaces, and the massive fines you said you gave them. Whose money did they pay the fines with? I mean, the account holder's money that paid the fines. So it's the public's money that paid the fines. And the fines were minuscule compared to the billions of profits that they have and have had. So, Minister, I mean, you have no appetite to tackle the banks. You have no appetite to tackle CRH, Roadster and PSE, who you want to put on the taxpayers that they'd pay the cement levy and pay for the bad projects with no work in Aiton. You have no appetite to tackle the insurance companies. I'm tired of talking to you about an insurance company. That wonderful tax pub in Benalubi got flooded the other night, making it worse. With the pub closed, they had insurance all their life. Wonderful Keating family. And now they can't get insurance as a domestic building. And it got flooded on Sunday night. So, you know, it rains and pours for some people, unfortunately. But you can't tackle the insurance companies. You can't tackle the banks. You can't tackle anything. And we're bringing in feeble and inept legislation here. And I think it's pathetic. And the public are quite sick and tired of it. And we've been seeing all over the world as a soft touch. We must have in this legislation, and we hope to get a minimum down to that, the vulture funds. And the so-called, you know, vote to these people. Michael Newnan, welcome to this country. Imagine the word vulture. How many of the word the vulture, you see what they do to a pit lamb when it's been born. And the connotation, the name of the vulture. And the name is very appropriate for them. But they must be accountable to the Finance Committee and the Public Accounts Committee. And we must also, I see cases recently where departments are refusing to come before several committees. Something that I'm on. That cannot be allowed. So we must have real, we're governed to do legislation and to be accountable to people. And we must make sure that we do that. Remarkable. Thank you.
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