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HIGHER EDUCATION MINISTER Simon Harris has said banks got away with not passing on higher interest rates to their savers for “far too long”.
He slammed the banks for their slow pace to support their customers, standing over previous comments where he called the banks “laggards”.
Speaking to reporters at Government Buildings this afternoon, the minister said he welcomed the move by Permanent TSB to up its interest rates on certain savings products.
The bank said today the changes, which will take effect from 26 September, will see its three-year fixed term deposit rate rise from 2% to 3%.
Earlier this week, Bank of Ireland announced a series of rate changes to its suite of deposit products.
“I welcome the fact that some banks have now finally decided to give people some of their own fair share from their own money, but don’t expect me to say thank you on behalf of the people that I represent,” he said, adding:
They got away with it for a long time and there are still some sectors of society ripping off the Irish people during the cost of living crisis, and I’ll never stop calling that out.
“I used the phrase laggards and, you know, maybe people thought it was an offensive term. It’s not. It is a statement of fact. It means to lag, to come last and it is an absolute statement of fact,” he added.
Harris said a Financial Times report showed that Irish banks came last in terms of passing on the interest rates to their customers.
Harris on bankers: ‘The other factor is the elephant in the room, which is a certain small number of sectors being able to profiteer during the cost of living crisis when my constituents are seeing the costs of things going up’ pic.twitter.com/4kAxZf5TP7
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) August 30, 2023
“They were quick enough to pass on other charges. I don’t buy the strawman arguments and I never will and quite frankly, the media shouldn’t either,” said Harris.
“The reality of the situation is that banks want to have a conversation about mortgage rates on one hand and interest rates in the other. That’s fine. There’s another leg of that stool. It’s called profit levels.
“And I believe in profit, profit is a good thing. Profit is very important in a capital society. But profit is meant to be based on ingenuity, it is meant to be based on hard work, it’s meant to be based on innovation, it is meant to be based on new products. It’s not meant to be based on just being in the right place at the right time when there’s an inflationary crisis, the worst since we’ve seen since perhaps the 1970s,” said Harris.
Permanent TSB reported pre-tax profit levels of €26 million for the first half of 2023.
Harris said he welcomed the fact that some banks are now moving to pass on some level of a rate increase to their savings products, acknowledging that there’s a correlation between mortgage interest rates and deposit interest rates.
“But it’s not the only factor. The other factor is the elephant in the room, which is a certain small number of sectors being able to profiteer during the cost of living crisis when my constituents are seeing the costs of things going up, are worried about it and government is working around the clock to try and help people ease that burden,” said the minister.
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No fear of you saying it while it was happening though Simon. They are great with the soundbites when the barrel reaches the bottom of the hill, bit never mind trying to prevent it from rolling over the taxpayers on the way down.
@Richard Brady: power hungry play book is being followed step by step by this tea making swine.
@Richard Brady: Maybe now the government might reduce the level of DIRT tax on the interest accruing to hard pressed savers. He hadn’t said anything about that!!!
Too little too late
@jiminybillybob: as always with this lot.
Too little & waaaaaay to late buddy
@mainmsam: 8 years and mic-drop.
This is akin to Positioning the chairs on the Titanic, is there an Election, or Party Leadership Contest coming up, does Minister Harris not realise the Government he is part of could have something about this already.
What’s he going to do about it, he wouldn’t dare go after his masters.
@Rees: As being part of the EU can I try and get a mortgage in another EU country and move my savings there
Spoofer
Aib also did a great job taking on Ulster Banks mortgages by completely miscalculating every one of the trackers to find only the calculations were incorrect again hard to have confidence in these clowns and a government afraid of its own shadow when it comes to dealing with them effectively
sounfbites simon is off again
If he were serious, he would force the banks to backpay the deposit interest. It would be dated back to the second they increased their loan interest rates. (Irish banks are too insignificant to boast such profits)
These are the lads and ladies that couldn’t count, nearly broke the country for profit, and then got me and you had to pay for it. Clowns.
Just Words, and far too late. Meaningless. Would he vocalise on changing rules to get banks profits taxed again, of course not.
This is just another fluff headline promoting simon harris. Christina is one of many of Simons journalist friends. Really bad yellow journalism. You are promoting Simon harris we these articles very unprofessional.
The government could do something immediately, increase the rates on post office savings right now.
For all his talk about what the banks should do and what the energy companies should do and what the supermarkets should do….. As a government minister with the power to do so should he not organise a cut to the USC and give the workers of this country a break. Grow a pair.
Has the Government saving bonds interest rate gone up yet?.If they haven’t then STF up Harris.
@Gerry Lamont: this country is awash with deposits(the highest across Europe per capita)they only offer higher deposit rates when we don’t.like the famous ssia scheme where we had(I think 10% interest)that’s because we had very little on deposit then.I would love higher interest savings rates like anyone else,but that’s unfortunately how it works.
Can’t wait for sf to get in to show us all how it’s done…marching into banks/supermarkets/hotels/pubs and everything else and telling them how to run their businesses and demanding that they lower their prices and up their rates and the like.good times ahead in the next government.
@uUleRhCu: Literally can’t be worse than the absolute shambles at the wheel right now, John.
@Alan Farrell: I don’t think people like you understand the powers of a government.I think it comes from years listening to populist sound bites from an opposition party.the Italian government announced windfall taxes in their country and it had devastating effects on their markets which nearly collapsed their economy….they reversed them very quickly but not before it had long term damage on future investment in their country.
@uUleRhCu: “I think it comes from years listening to populist sound bites from an opposition party”, and straight away, you’re wrong. As for the rest of what you’re saying, the latest story I can find around Italy and the windfall tax they put on energy companies is from Reuters a month ago about how the government collected $3 billion from it. No mention whatsoever of the catastrophe you’re saying happened? Can’t find anything about the reversal of the windfall tax at all, can you link it?
@Alan Farrell: just google Italy windfall tax.plenty of articles about it……if you and sf think it’s such a good idea,why are all governments around the world doing it….do you think they are trying to annoy ‘the people’. Like sf and their supporters think?
@uUleRhCu: bbc news 9th august….Italy water down windfall tax after markets plummet.
@uUleRhCu: So I just Googled it and the latest story on it is from 3 weeks ago with Italy introducing a once off 40% windfall tax on banking profits for 2023. They expect to collect around €3 Billion from it. Nothing about a catastrophic impact on the Italian economy or a reversal like you are saying. As for your question about other countries, this from Reuters: “Countries such as Spain and Hungary have already imposed windfall taxes on the sector and others may now follow suit.” Can you link the story about how the windfall tax had a catastrophic impact on the Italian economy and it was reversed, but not before untold damage had been done? I’ve Googled several times now with no luck.
@Alan Farrell: it clearly says in the article that markets plummeted….as a business owner and high tax payer(and high energy)I would love if the government could bring in measures that would ease my high burdens….but not if it’s going to have a negative longer term effect.short term gain usually leads to long term pain.
@uUleRhCu: Yes, and once the cap was placed on the windfall tax those markets began to recover literally the next day. There is still a windfall tax and they expect it to collect about 2.5 billion.
@Alan Farrell: but they are also saying it will have longer term negative effects on inward investment.put it this way,would you invest in a country that imposes windfall taxes or countries that don’t?…every action has an equal and opposite reaction.that’s why governments around Europe are very coy about doing it unless every government does it.
@uUleRhCu: I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Thanks for leading me down the windfall rabbit hole, hadn’t really heard much about it until I went Googling there! Also, as for party preference in this country, for me I honestly don’t “support” any party like a football team. I don’t care about SF. I don’t care about FF or FG. I only care about the state of the country that myself and my family have to live in. And it’s not good right now. If it was SF in power for this long I would want change as well, nothing to do with a tribal grudge against any party.
@uUleRhCu: Well FFG are showing us how it’s not done. FFG reduced the VAT rates for the Hospitality sector who never passed on the savings to the consumer…FFG did nothing….When FFG increased the prices in off licences and supermarkets..( For our Health)….The cost increase went into the profits of the above. Crumbling Health service, Homelessness Housing crisis, Scandal after scandal, A make it up as you go along refugee crisis…Thats FFG…Didn’t mention the Greens as they just make up the numbers…
..
@Alan Farrell: I agree Alan.I don’t like this government one bit,but unfortunately I like the opposition less.terrible situation.I was so desperate last election I voted social democrats.
So has this government
Another spoofer is Harris…and as for the banks, they are the greatest robbers of all time !
After we bailed them out we should have had every cent they currently hoard for their shareholders as business legally must, incidentally capitalism supposedly says they should have been allowed to fail but let’s not focus on that inconvenient truth eh!? Banks produce (manufacture) debt on a screen, that’s the business model!
They ever so kindly ‘lend’ this debt to you and extract wealth from you through interest payments thus earning money on money that didn’t previously exist, known as debt. Companies/corporations extract it also obvs, the whole merry-go-’round relies on exploitation as a model of how we should live with each other.
The only thing this cashflow(?) needs to do to keep the money-go-round going is exactly that, keep going; flowing from bottom to top and around again. The problem of course is folks do tend to hoardso in reality most of us just end up enriching an elite as it has worked out. Top down my arse!
The problem arises when the money does not flow down from top to bottom again to keep the whole show on the road. Keep the rotating current flowing as one might think of it.
We all know the rich get richer, that it takes money to make money etc., blah blah blah blah but we as the less well off/poor continue to do nothing about it! That’s on us!! Ultimately though greed will be our undoing. Yet we remain passive in the face of a rapacious capitalist resource extraction model coz we don’t collectively possess the awareness of the issues/realities or bravery to take the risks and make the sacrifices necessary to save ourselves, our children and grandchildren. Fk them right? I’m alright! Right?!
We deserve what we ultimately reap!!
@Chutes: It’s not about whatever conspiracy theory is flavour of the day, it’s about the rest of us letting it happen, letting ourselves be used without large scale protests on the streets to protect our own interests: we allow it all!
To have hopes towards the continuation of our human race requires collective action on scales never seen. I’m not gonna hold my fkn breath ngl!!
They make out there is nothing they can do this is nonesense. Nothing stopping the government from offering an Irish government bond at an attractive rate and term. All this hand wringing and moaning is useless more action less soundbites.
Election preparation?????
“laggards”, bankers will be in knots Simon, force the issue
Government is weak.
What about the state savings there interest rates are Sh!te
They could have increased the rates on state savings products at any time and forced the banks hand but didn’t. Too busy pumping up the banks share price ahead of more sell downs of bank shares to enrich shareholders. Even the rates they are belatedly moving to are well below the ECB rates. The rip offs keep coming.
No one thanks it (for gods sake) but you have the power to stop it. Y’know, take action for your country and all?? Are you that thick??
Posturing from another all talk no action td. You guys can act very quickly when you need something from the public, but when the public needs you, “your hands are tied”.
Legislate for a 1% difference between savings and borrowings. Any more profit than that should have to come from innovation or cost reduction.
Most savers will get little to nothing from this. They have increased rates (that are still well below other countries) in things like ; year fixed term and regular saver accounts that limit the amount that you can save. They just did this for the headlines. No substance to it,
have your say