Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

Like the last speaker, I think the Opposition must proceed to a great extent on trust. We trust that the required information is being made available to the Minister and that he has demanded the right degree of information and undertakings from the banks and other financial institutions. I am not so sure, however, and I remain sceptical. I am one of the three remaining Members of the House who sat on the DIRT inquiry some years ago, which investigated the activities of the banking institutions. During the course of that inquiry we were given firm undertaking that there would never again be deviation from good banking practices. Firm undertakings were given that due diligence reports would be made regularly and that no procedure would be entered into without approval from the Central Bank, the Department of Finance, the Financial Regulator and any other body that was required to give such assurances.

Each member of the inquiry team was, in turn, subjected overtly and covertly to various pressures during the course of those hearings, which went on for about three months. Up to this day, that pressure still existed for anybody who wants to admit it. Unless I see it written in tablets of stone, therefore, I do not accept any undertaking given by those institutions at this time. The onus is on the Minister, as the current holder of that office, to demand in stone, and written in blood, if necessary, an undertaking to the effect that the good procedures he is now requesting will be followed.

We began discussing this matter last night, but I do not know if the Minister can answer the point. Why were the Financial Regulator and the Governor of the Central Bank not fired in the past couple of weeks? After all, the carry-on that has occurred over the past six or seven years has been appalling. The Minister may open his eyes in amazement, but I know why they were not fired and so do other Members of this House. It is because they were acting on the instructions of the Government. They were embedded with the Government. There is no doubt in the world about it. What has gone on was purely and simply as a result of Government policy, which was working hand in glove with those institutions. The Government has compromised the institutions of the regulator and the Governor of the Central Bank. The Minister may look appalled.

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