Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

In many ways, I am in favour of the mechanics of the legislation but this fundamental problem remains. We should work on it now; we cannot wait any longer. This Bill does not provide the answer because we should know at this stage what caused the problems of the past but we have not even started.

There has been a report in Iceland, which had an even more spectacular failure. That report is complete and I understand it runs to nine volumes and was published some weeks ago. There was no restraint in that report. It ladled out the blame where it was clearly established. Regardless of who the individuals were, they were pinpointed. The real question is why this has not happened here. One must be driven to a certain conclusion. I am long enough in the House now not to get into political slagging, but the suspicion exists that the reason for the delay in carrying out an analysis, an examination and a report is the fear of the Government that the finger of suspicion would point at it.

I recall the mantra of the then Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, the then Minister for Finance and all the Ministers. It was that there were no problems and that the fundamentals were sound.

See this speech in context