Mayo Sinn Féin Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Mayo towns may lose out in banking crisis - Murray

Published: 10 November, 2008

Sinn Féin County Councillor Gerry Murray has called on the government to become a major stakeholder in the country's banks before a number of banking mergers start to impact in an adverse manner on rural Ireland. Given the scale and the nature of the current crisis in the Irish banking sector it is almost certain that number of major mergers will occur in the not too distant future. In recent weeks there has been speculation about a merger of the AIB and the Bank of Ireland and in such circumstances one can expect major cost cutting exercises and asset stripping in the aftermath of such a merger. In those circumstances it is inevitable that many of our rural towns in Mayo would lose their banking services.

Cllr. Murray said, "I am therefore calling on the Government to seriously consider part nationalisation of the banks in order to ensure our small rural towns do not lose their banking services. The current Government guarantee for the banks may stabilise the market and protect ordinary investors, but it does not secure the range of banking services that our rural towns need if they are to be sustainable into the future. I would urge the Government to follow Gordon's Brown's policy of part nationalisation of the Banks.

"The current global finance crisis is of the sectors own making and the Dublin government like many others across the developed world have allowed such a collapse to take place due to their refusal to put in place adequate regulations to protect ordinary investors from the finance sectors reckless practice of buying and selling cheap money to one another.

"Sinn Féin has always argued for a state bank and the current crisis is evidence alone of the value in such a proposition. With a state bank government can adequately protect the investments and deposits of ordinary citizens and small businesses whilst at the same time ensuring that the people of rural Ireland have access to a full range of banking services"