Irish Green Party — “Public Banking can become real ‘Third Force’ in Irish finance”
http://ellenbrown.com/2014/11/16/irish-green-party-p%E2%80%8Bublic-banking-can-become-real-third-force-in-irish-finance/
By Ellen Brown, 11/15/14
I just got back from a really good and productive week in Ireland. Haven’t gotten an article out but thought I would post these two articles that were in the local Irish press (online and print). Two interviews are yet to be published, plus two video interviews (with the UK Guardian and Rabobank); so public banking got a lot of exposure.
Public Banking can become real ‘Third Force’ in Irish finance
Friday 7th November 2014, Dublin.
Green Party Finance Spokesperson, Cllr Mark Dearey, has today spoken of the positive benefits that the introduction of public banking could have for the Irish financial market. The creation of a publicly-held banking network, acting as a competitor to the existing private commercial banks, would be a disruptive and much needed shot in the arm for the current arrangement. Cllr Dearey made his comments following a productive meeting with the founder and President of the Public Banking Institute, Dr Ellen Brown, who is in Ireland to participate in the Kilkenomics festival.
He also detailed the Green Party's efforts to achieve a degree of cross party support for the proposal, which is receiving the very significant technical support of the Sparkassen Savings Bank Group in Germany.
Cllr Dearey said: "This latest meeting builds on our work to introduce a new banking model to Ireland. Together with the Sparkassen Group, we have held a series of meetings with the main political parties and are looking forward to further engagement with Government, and to presenting it with a detailed concept document on how public banking might work in this country.
"A project of this complexity will clearly not be simple to implement, and any design will need to take account of the distinct characteristics of the Irish market, as well as complement existing local savings institutions.
"The Sparkassen model has had many positive benefits for Germany, and I believe that it can be replicated here. The ambition is to establish a network of regional savings banks, possibly held in trust by Local Authorities, lending within the region only, to the SME sector and not to consumers.
"As publicly owned regional institutions with no shareholders, profit is retained to build core capital. Interest earned from regional lending, meanwhile, is re-loaned within the region. Thus, regional economic resilience is built up, and lending and risk management are informed by regional circumstances. In this way it is a return to traditional banking, based on knowledge of the applicant and the economic profile of the region."
Fifth Kilkenomics festival attracts bumper line up of speakers
Gavin McLoughlin, Irish Independent, 07/11/2014
Ellen Brown, a co-founder of the US-based Public Banking Institute, doesn’t mince her words. She’s among the speakers at the fifth Kilkenomics festival, which began yesterday.“My purpose in being there and what I hope to introduce is that you can fix a lot of your economic problems by having some publicly owned banks.”
It’s not about nationalising the system, says Brown. Rather the idea is to have a number of banks that can return profits to the public rather than to shareholders.
“It’s a no-brainer once you get it,” she says.
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