Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The people can have faith and trust in what the Government intends to do because for the past decade, nothing has been done in respect of the capacity of this House or the Oireachtas to hold accountable persons who, by reckless greed, lack of oversight or whatever else, went off the rails completely and for whom the taxpayer must pay in consequence. The only way in which this can be achieved is by holding a referendum to give the Oireachtas and its elected representatives the authority and power to get to the root of such questions. The reason there is no direct reference to political parties in this regard is that it cannot be dealt with without having the approval for the consequences of a referendum arising from the Abbeylara case. This is the reason the Government intends to prioritise this matter, put it to the people and give elected Members of this House the opportunity on television, not in the manner of a Star Chamber, to have accountability in respect of the facts. This is important.

I agree with the Deputy that the element of greed in this regard has been evident for far too long. The Deputy made the point that people did not speak out about it. I remind him that in respect of the 2003 budget, I stated "we have a crisis in the management of our public finances". For every year of his term as Opposition spokesperson on finance, Deputy Bruton made reference to this. In his statement on the 2007 budget, he stated "you cannot build indefinite spending growth on the back of a building boom, no more then you can build long-term economic prosperity on the back of a building boom". It is confusing of the Deputy to state that these matters were never raised, as they were. At long last, however, there is an opportunity to do something about it. The Government will so do when it gets the imprimatur of the people by asking them a question as to whether they will give the Oireachtas the authority and the opportunity to hold to account those who should be held to account.

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