Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

While every area has suffered as a result of the weather conditions of recent weeks, I can speak only for the area I know best. Before the President visits my area on Friday, the road to Dunamore will have to be completely resurfaced and rebuilt. It is the only road in the area which will resurfaced because the county council does not have sufficient funds to do what is necessary.

This story could be repeated all over the country, including Wexford, Dublin and Tallaght. The unusual event that will occur on Friday is that the president will accept that all roads in County Cork are as perfect as the one she will drive on. She will be like a queen, thinking there are new roads everywhere she goes. The county council does not have enough money to redo the roads. In Cork the water system is turned off at 9 p.m. every night because the water system cannot hold the pressure. This is as a result of our economy going down the tubes. We have a country in dire need of infrastructure such as schools, roads, water and all of the facilities a developed economy should have. Instead we are bailing out the banks to such an extent that our economy will take years to recover. The people expected to bail out the banks are those who sit here every day and serve this country, firemen and county council workers. They are all taking a hit in order to bail out the banks. The Government has decided that the inquiry into the failure of the banking system will be held in private. The Government knows that if this was to be done in public, those who are angry at having their pay cut and not having decent roads to drive on would revolt when they see what really happened.

I refer to the lack of regulation and the Minister who continually told us that regulation is a dead hand, that regulation should be lighter or that we should have none. That is the scenario that brought us to where we are. We have heard this scenario from Fianna Fáil backbenchers, telling us of the trouble their constituents are in with mortgages and telling us about companies going out of business because they cannot get cash flow from the banks. We are not to know what happened and we will never know what happened.

This inquiry is designed to take Fianna Fáil past the next election. A Fianna Fáil backbencher said today that the only focus is on Brian Cowen. It is not. We would like to know what Charlie McCreevy did during all of this and we would like to hear from Deputies Bertie Ahern and Mary Harney. I will not mention the Green Party at this stage because its members do not appear to want to come to the House. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Environment, Deputy John Gormley, is like the Saatchi & Saatchi of this Government. He is on the television every time I look and on the radio every time I listen but he is never in the House.

The economy is going down the tubes as a result of greed and lack of regulation. We will not be able to see the very people charged with investigating what happened in this country, who they are questioning and what are the answers. We will eventually get a report that will lead us to another report yet the ordinary person who works every day of the week will pay not just for the crisis but for the investigation this Government has decided we are not entitled to see. It is a disgrace and I am more than surprised at certain members of the Government who are allowing this to happen. I know that certain Members on the Government side are distinctly uncomfortable with what is happening. It is about time their voices were heard.

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