Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I support the motion proposed by my colleague, Deputy O'Donnell. This important issue needs to be fully clarified and sorted out. Many small businesses and farmers in my constituency are under pressure because they cannot get proper banking facilities. That serious problem is a direct result of the crisis presided over by the current Government, as alluded to in the two reports. The preliminary reports on the banking crisis clearly blame the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen. His economic policies were a major cause of the crisis we are experiencing. The Taoiseach's only defence is that his policies were based on the best available advice at the time. This argument has not been tested at length by either report.

The Taoiseach's claim needs to be examined by a private commission of investigation, in the interests of democratic and public service accountability. We are looking for proper terms of reference to be put in place so that the Taoiseach and those involved with him at the time are brought into the debate. They should be examined fully on their roles in what happened during the years in question.

When one examines the situation in Anglo Irish Bank, one must speak in terms of hundreds of thousands of euro. One of my colleagues chastised me when I spoke in terms of billions of euro the other night. I was told that people do not understand billions because they are not used to them. Hundreds of thousands of euro - taxpayers' money - is going into Anglo Irish Bank. As Deputy O'Donnell has said, it is colossal and unforgivable. The bank in question has made it clear that unless it gets more money, the money it has received to date will not be of any service or use. Small industries and farmers are under severe pressure as a direct result of that. I emphasise that the people of this country, each of whom owes €20,000 as a result of this crisis, want to get a clear indication of how and why it happened. I do not believe those who caused the crisis can make sure it is rectified.

It is proposed that when the report of the commission of investigation is completed, it will be laid before the Oireachtas for further consideration. It will then be open to an Oireachtas committee to hold further hearings on it. The draft terms of reference require that the commission of investigation should complete its work within six months of its establishment. It is a joke that the terms of reference limit the issues to be covered to the failure of the bank managers, directors, auditors and regulators to protect the financial stability of their institutions and the country as a whole. I accept that all of these people played a role in the crisis, but it is completely unacceptable to suggest that the Government and the Minister for Finance of the time did not play a role in it.

The central findings of both of the preliminary reports - that the socioeconomic context for the individual failures of the banks and the regulator was the reckless and inflammatory policies pursued by the then Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen - are being ignored. His policies ignored the contemporaneous warnings that the stability of the economy was being threatened and national competitiveness was being undermined. We have heard the Taoiseach say on many occasions that nobody warned him about what was happening. He was given umpteen warnings about it. He was Minister for Finance at the time when Deputy Bertie Ahern was Taoiseach. The only response the former Taoiseach gave at that stage was that those issuing such warnings should take a running jump and go somewhere else. I do not have his exact words to hand, but I recall that he said certain people should commit suicide. It is crazy for people to say the Government was not warned, or that nobody was angry or anxious about the situation.

I used to drive around villages in County Cavan on Sunday afternoons to look at the extraordinary numbers of houses that were being built. There was not a factory in sight. There was no word of any jobs being created, other than in the building industry. It did not make sense. Special arrangements were put in place in the Shannon basin so that those building houses could get tax relief. As part of the region was in County Cavan, in my constituency, I constantly received telephone calls from people in County Monaghan and other areas who wanted to know why developments in one area were eligible for tax relief but developments in other areas were not. It is bunkum for the Taoiseach to say he put an end to such arrangements as soon as he became Minister for Finance. The reports show clearly that did not happen - the tax reliefs were phased out over a long period of time.

No one is living in many of the houses that have been built in towns and villages throughout the country. We have to try to devise ways of ensuring those houses are used. Many people do not have their own houses at present. If we provide jobs in the areas in question, young people may use these houses in the future. It is not hard to see what has happened over the years. In my own county of Monaghan, just 400 jobs have been created by outside industry over the last 30 years. No effort has been made by the Government, IDA Ireland or anybody else to bring jobs to the area. The jobs have gone to Dundalk, Sligo, Dublin, Galway and elsewhere but not to the Border region. Some of these matters can be sorted out.

I beg the Minister for Finance to ensure a little common sense is applied in this context. We are not asking for much. The issues highlighted in these reports have to be discussed if the work of the commission is to be relevant. It should be allowed to consider the actions of the present Taoiseach and his officials, so that a clearer picture starts to emerge. We need to ensure nobody in the history of this generation or the next allows a debacle of this nature to develop again. We have experience of the work of the new regulator - major questions have to be asked about how he dealt with the Quinn affair. Jobs that should not be lost are being lost. We have gone from total under-regulation to over-regulation. The only way we can solve this problem is by agreeing the simple resolution before the House, which would allow the proper people to be questioned and a proper report to be made. That is all we are asking for. We are not asking for anything major.

See this speech in context