Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Thank you very much. Just to ... I'd like to just thank a couple of people in closing and I certainly would like to thank what would be described as the Fourth Estate who have been with us over the course of many a hearing and many a long day and many a long evening, and for the coverage that they have obviously ... and attention that they have given to the inquiry. I was speaking to the clerk there a moment ago, and I'd say he's only too happy to let the other clerks in the Dáil know that this room is available from now on ... having occupied and almost lived in it. And, in that regard, the team that have been on the top table as well, I probably ... in my acknowledgment of the investigations and other ... maybe didn't give them their own due acknowledgement earlier this morning.

The committee door will be closing soon and we'll go into our private deliberations to get to the report.

And, in that regard, I'm reminded of a quote by Alexander Graham Bell that sometimes we stand so long at a door that is closing that we see too late a door that is opening. Now the quote may have been made for another context but I do think it's relevant to the work of this committee. And as we close the door on the public hearings we now open the door as we go into our final report. And in keeping with the theme of that quote it's important that the committee, in preparing its final report, is not just looking at the past to learn lessons but also has a firm eye to the future in bringing forward recommendations to ensure that a crisis such as the one that we are presently examining is never revisited on the Irish people again. Thank you. With that said, I'll now bring matters to a close. I thank the Minister for his engagement this evening. The meeting is formally adjourned and the Minister is formally excused. And this concludes the public hearings of the Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis. The committee is adjourned sine die.