Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

NAMA is certainly not a get-out clause and I welcome Deputy Simon Coveney's remarks that he saw it as not being a get-out clause for the developers and those that fate has thrown around. Loans will be followed up. Those who have the loans will still be followed up in the same fashion as they were previously. While NAMA will ultimately solve the fiduciary and monetary issues facing our system, much work remains to be done on other responsibility issues. I welcome the appointment of Dr. Patrick Honohan as Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland. He brings international skills and experience and is not coming from the usual clearing house for Central Bank of Ireland governors, the Department of Finance. That in itself is a major break with tradition and a major signal on the part of the Minister that the regulatory environment will change.

I also welcome the commitment by the Taoiseach this morning that we will have a new director of financial regulation, somebody of high calibre and experience. If the appointment of Dr. Patrick Honohan is anything to go by, we can look forward to somebody with real power and real teeth in order to ensure that we do not find ourselves in this situation again. I also encourage the Deputies opposite to engage with the Minister given his commitment to discuss with them the appointment of people to NAMA so that they can be involved in that regard.

However, other things remain to be done. I agree with proposals floated this summer that we need a complete examination of the banking industry in Ireland and what went on particularly in the past five years. The place to do it is in this House through the Committee of Public Accounts-----

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