Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I thank my colleagues for sharing time with me. I am glad to see the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, in the House. I consider this to be the biggest crisis and scandal in the history of the State. If we are to deal with something of that nature, it is extremely important that we do so in a proper fashion. Our democratic proposal would include the Oireachtas in a public, rather than a secret, inquiry. It is not good enough that the Government is proposing a convoluted hybrid tripartite inquiry, with no guarantee of any element of it being in public. It is an insult to taxpayers, who are having to take up the burden of underwriting the €500 billion guarantee scheme and the €7 billion recapitalisation programme, as well as NAMA and the taking into public ownership of Anglo Irish Bank.

Taxpayers are already paying through the nose as a result of the three most recent budgets, which hit them very hard. It is likely that similar bills will come from the Government for four more years, in order to pay for what the bankers have done. If we cannot respond by telling the taxpayer we will do a decent job of exposing those who bought us to this stage, what are we doing in this House? As public representatives, we have been elected by the taxpayers to represent them. The least we can do is provide a thorough, comprehensive and transparent inquiry for them. If such an inquiry is to deliver the goods, it should reveal how it happened, why it happened and who is responsible for it. It should make it possible for the relevant sanctions to be imposed on those people. That is what we are doing here tonight. The Minister is trying to turn down the covers. Keep it as tight as possible and do not allow questions on the €500 million guarantee or the decisions made by successive Ministers and taoisigh. It will not be relevant unless we can get to the nub of the problem, namely, where and how decisions were made. The public must be able to see that we are properly representing them in this House.

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