Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

I also support the amendment and I am delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this most topical issue, which is affecting every man, woman and child and which will affect future generations. We must get answers on the failures visited upon our people. There was a monumental failure on the part of our banking services and I must condemn our regulation services which failed miserably to regulate and honour the jobs and positions they had.

As a public representative I believe the citizens of Ireland are entitled to know what happened, how it went wrong and what mistakes we made. More importantly, we must try to learn from those mistakes and, together, lift our country out of the deep mire it is in at present. We all know that not a red cent is available to any citizen whether for business, ordinary families, farming or anybody with a new idea to get the country off its knees and up and running. We hear pious platitudes from our bankers that credit is available for mortgages, to build new houses and to kick-start the building industry and business. However, we know the reality is that not a cent is available. We must accept that the banks do not have it.

Until we sort out those issues and get proper answers I will not call for anybody to be indicted without fair and due process. I support the procedures laid down by the Government to hold these inquiries and to do so in public where possible. It is imperative that the public sees what is going on and it is looking to us to bring these people to account, whether they be regulators, bankers or politicians who allowed the situation to continue and got us into the mess in which we are. It is vital for the future of the country that we have this investigation and that it is carried out speedily and effectively with the right people and expertise brought in to do so. We must then bring it back to the Oireachtas committees, as we have done in the past. We are dealing with a much greater challenge than any Oireachtas committee has had to deal with but it should return for debate to the floor of this Chamber.

Let whomever feels the cap fits wear it, whether banker, regulator or politician. We have to send out the message to our European partners, our international lenders and those with whom we transact business on a daily basis that Ireland does not have a kangaroo system but that it is a democracy with an effective and working banking system and thriving economy. To do so we must learn from our mistakes and put a new roadmap in place to chart out a course and go forward and, with the help of our people, lift our economy back to where we would all like to be, not to the mad years of the Celtic tiger but to a decent day's pay for every man or woman who wants to work for a day's wages and not the crazy figures to which some people felt they were entitled and achieved.

I lend my support to this inquiry and I hope it will be constructive, that there will be no witch hunts but that there will also be no hiding place for any man or woman who in the end-game is found to be guilty of any wrongdoing. However, it must take place after due process is carried out.

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