Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

This is not the type of banking that most people in this country are familiar with. Returning to the amendment, this is the reason we need an assessor and a regulator for this area. The type of bank with which most people are familiar is one with a lot of customers who have loans. This bank had very few customers and a lot of loans which makes it unique in the banking sector. With this liability should come a level of governance, regulation and certainly a lot of accountability.

There are very basic principles to problem solving and the first is that the problem is put on the table but the Government has been complacent at best and is probably entwined in the problem at worst. Since the House last debated the banking crisis either nothing has been learned in that time or, more worrying, there is something in the Government's relationship with a certain sector of society that has not yet come into the public domain.

The outcome of this debate has already been decided; the worry is that the consequences have yet to be known.

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