Phil Prendergast (Labour)

It is my last day and contribution here. I have been delighted to have been part of the 23rd Seanad and would like to wish everybody that is going forward for election the best.

On the Nyberg report, which cost €1.2 million to tell us what we knew, and the herding and group-think but were the key drivers of financial instability, there was no collective consciousness in that regard. People like Colm Doherty, Michael Fingleton, Seán FitzPatrick, Brian Goggin, Patrick Neary and others have retired with huge pensions.

While I recognise that contracts are confidential, the parts which are deemed to be unbreakable, whether they are anonymous, should be put into the public arena and debated. It is very hard for people, when they are suffering in terms of trying to pay their bills and mortgages, to see people that have contributed in a huge way to the misfortune in which the country now finds itself receiving large amounts of money when they cannot make ends meet.