Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Chairman of the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny, Deputy John Perry, for his presentation. I thank Deputies Joe Costello and Bernard Durkan for their thoughts on the matter.

Let me deal with the end of Deputy Durkan's contribution, which I would describe as political reductionism. I followed the debate on the banking crisis in many countries. The explanations being sought in respect of the US banking crisis, for example, do not focus on the role of former President Bush. The explanations for the British banking crisis do not focus mainly on the actions of Prime Minister Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. There are arguments to be made in this regard, of course, but the problem is far more profound than Deputy Durkan alleges. This is precisely why the Government has not agreed to a crude, polemical, Oireachtas-based politicising approach interested only in simplistic arguments-----

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