Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It was a major failing on the part of the Government not to have public interest directors in respect of the roles public interest directors could have played during this crisis but having said that, even when we had them, the Government or the Minister at the time did not use public interest directors with regard to directly reporting to him. This was a major failing as well because we have had public interest directors and this scandal has been going on for years. Many public interest directors have been former Ministers or Members of this House who did not lift the phone to contact the Minister and raise issues about what was happening within the banks. There are serious questions here because these individuals were paid quite handsomely by the Irish State to the tune of €70,000 or €80,000 per annum and we are led to believe that they did not raise an eyelid regarding this issue or at least did not bring it to the attention of the Minister.