19 February 2021
By Mary Bermingham
mary@TheCork.ie
A Cork North Central TD who is also Oireachtas Finance Committee member, Mick Barry, this morning called for the nationalisation of Ulster Bank.
The Cork North Central deputy said that this is the only way to guarantee protection of the banks’ 1.1 customers, 88 branches and 2800 workers.
Mick Barry is a Cork North Central TD. with Solidarity (that party was formerly known as the Anti-Austerity Alliance (AAA), and is the main socialist political party in Ireland)
Deputy Barry said there is also the need for immediate legislation to prevent the bank or any portion of it from falling into the hands of “vulture funds”.
He called for an urgent Dáil debate to be held on the issue next week.
He claimed that Nat West had “squeezed Ulster Bank dry for profit” and now was abandoning the Irish market without any thought whatsoever for the customers, communities and workforce that had helped swell their balance sheet.
Ulster Bank forwarded €3.5Bn in profit to NatWest in recent years, says the Cork TD.
Deputy Barry said:
“This is an act of social vandalism on a grand scale by NatWest. Having extracted enormous profits from this country in recent years NatWest are now putting a million customers and nearly 3000 workers into a very precarious situation. Rather than having these customers and jobs bartered over in the marketplace over the next weeks and months Ulster Bank should instead be taken out of the hands of the profiteers and nationalised in the interest of Irish society.”
