SEANAD REPORT:THE BANKS seemed to be more powerful than the Government, Shane Ross (Ind) said.
They were the people who were dictating the pace of the economy and who were being tolerated. It was time that the Minister for Finance made it clear that he was going to stand up to them.
Referring to yesterday's profit- warning announcement by AIB, Mr Ross said it was extraordinary that the bank appeared to have just discovered Ireland and commercial and residential property. "Suddenly, they are saying that their problem here is here. For months they have been saying it's global."
The bank had to come out with its hands up, having had to go cap in hand to the Taoiseach and the Minister a few weeks ago.
Noting that an 11-month pay pause for the public sector had been agreed as part of the proposed social partnership agreement, Minister for Health Mary Harney said that since the making of the agreement, the economic situation had been deteriorating very rapidly. "I think everything should be on the table as far as the public finances are concerned, and clearly the more that can be saved in pay the more we have for services."
Mary White (FF) said there should be a national debate on how public support could be generated for the policy adjustments required in terms of national expenditure. There should be a pay freeze for two years for the private and public sectors. She believed that the public would have been ready for such an approach. "We cannot let David Begg decide what we are doing."
Ms Harney, speaking in a debate on the over-70s' medical cards, said she thought people were well aware of the fact that she was open to making the kind of changes in public sector numbers in order to facilitate greater scope for services to the public.
Public sector pay next year would be €19 billion. A 10 per cent saving could be €1.9 billion. If a choice like that could be made, other choices on cutting expenditure would not be necessary.
The Minister said there were 10,000 fewer over-70s in the population than the number of those which had the medical card. That was probably because people who had died were still factored in.
Ms Harney said she wanted to ensure that where couples qualified for the medical card and one of them passed away, the survivor would not lose the entitlements.