Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

A Minister who ran a Bill on nationalisation of a particular bank through this House who failed to read a crucial part of a report prepared on that bank would not have been tolerated to remain in office for 24 hours. In Japan, he would have fallen on his sword. In Westminster, he would have departed the scene. In Ireland, however, no matter how incompetent one is, he or she toughs it out.

The same applies to the directors of banks. They are uniquely responsible for decisions that have destroyed our banking system and imposed a legacy on future generations in this country which will cause them pain and difficulty and may result in tens of thousands of our people, when finally there is a recovery in Europe and America, having to take the emigration trail to seek jobs elsewhere.

To restore confidence in our banking system there should be an absolute clearout of those boards of directors who presided over the disaster which we are now confronting and by those in chief executive positions who sought to maximise profits, to ignore warnings from the ESRI and to ignore, indeed, what I would describe as the muted warnings that came from the Central Bank about their loan policies. They should depart the scene. It is only when they depart the scene and are replaced by appropriate people who have a different view of the world, and who are not interested in maintaining their salaries at the obscene present levels, that confidence will be restored in our banking system.

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