Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

With respect to events or parties involved in the collapse of the banking and property sector, I have already made it clear and set out in Dáil Éireann that any wrongdoing which has come to light since September 2008 and any associated failure in the regulatory system to respond to that which was a continuation of previous practices should of course come within the scope of the inquiry of the commission of investigation. That is my view and I take it that the preliminary reports will be conducted on that basis.

With regard to interventions by the Government and by this House through the enactment of legislation, these matters were fully debated in this House at the time. The assessment of the adequacy of the response to the crisis is an entirely distinct exercise from an assessment of the evolution of the crisis in itself. It is quite clear that by September 2008 the crisis was of such gravity and scale that the nature of the various interventions which the Government has been obliged to make was unavoidable.

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