Mortgage Interest Rates
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Pearse Doherty (SF), Donegal

I have raised this issue with the Tánaiste over and over again. It is clear that people are being ripped off. I wonder whether that is the assessment of the Tánaiste, as Minister for Finance, or does he think it is okay that banks make €5 billion in profits and charge higher interest rates than the average in the EU. That is where they are making their money. It is not due to huge innovations. It is because of the European Central Bank, ECB, interest rate in the main that these banks are making the profits they are making. This means a lot to families. Percentages relating to large mortgages - and I spoke earlier about the runaway house prices and people being forced into huge mortgages - mean thousands of euro each year. We cannot have a Minister who is simply impotent in this regard. On the one hand, the Government is getting rid of the pay caps for the CEO and selling off the stakes while, on the other hand, customers are basically abandoned. Is there anything the Minister plans to do to ensure banks pass on reduced interest rates to their customers instead of gouging them?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18