John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before Mr. Gurría goes, I note that we have had a number of EU Commissioners here over the last week or so. Like Mr. Gurría, they referred to the financial crisis and how well we are doing. They talk up the story of Ireland, which is fair enough. However, while the financial crisis may be over, the effect it has had on our individual citizens and businesses in this country is far from over. The banking system brought us to this place and was partly the cause of austerity but it was the people who bore the burden of that austerity and helped us back. While there were some policies from Government, the people carried the can at the end of the day. These very same banks - Mr. Gurría refers to some of this in his report today - have still not learned their lesson. They still need the extreme regulation, which is called for, because their culture has not changed. The indebtedness of businesses to the banks is such that if they do not begin properly to write down debt and allow businesses to be freed up to trade and provide employment, the country will suffer for even longer than it has suffered already. This will continue for longer than we expected.

When the IMF came in, the country responded by saying it would bring about the reform of local government, central government and administration. We said we will comply and we will be great. We have not seen the reform of local and national government that places the citizen at the centre of our work. That is regrettable. Therefore, I place what Mr. Gurría said in the context of the Ireland we live in. While the boats in the bigger centres have risen and people are moving on, there is a very large part of rural Ireland which still finds it extremely difficult to respond. That is due mainly to debt and poor policy implementation in rural Ireland. I am delighted we have had the opportunity to have this exchange and I appreciate Mr. Gurría's visit. I wish him well on his journey. I thank his officials also.