Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I assure the Deputy that were his time to come again, he would ask many more questions.

There also was a consensus of business interests that had converged and polluted one another because they were all going in the same direction. The reason for this is Irish company law which obviously differs from that which obtains in other countries. If something is done to jeopardise a company in the United States, the principals end up in jail. They go straight in because if they jeopardise the company, they jeopardise the interests of the shareholders as a result and anyone who is culpable in a situation where a company or the service provided by it is put at risk is in trouble. In Ireland, as Members have heard again in recent days, the shareholders, the non-executive directors and the management were all thinking in the same way and going in the same direction. They were all thinking this was wonderful and that if one deposited one's money in the bank, one could only get a return of 2% but if one was to invest it in property, one would get a return of 40% or perhaps 50% over a three or four-year period. That is both unsustainable and absolutely crazy and the sad part is that all of these weaknesses were identified during the DIRT inquiry. I refer to weaknesses such as bad governance, a failure to recognise when things were going wrong, malfeasance, fellows who simply would not stand up and accept responsibility, and misfeasance, where they simply walked away and took no responsibility.

I wish to discuss two other issues, the first of which is the problem Ireland now faces in mending its image across Europe. I strongly urge that this be perceived by the Government as a priority. Most parliaments, as opposed to governments, throughout Europe do not regard us highly. They consider us to be a bunch of chancers and grabbers who are not honourable and who do not tell the truth. Consequently, we must address these issues. This will be a difficult job, but it must be done as a matter of priority. Moreover, while the Government will do this at governmental level, it should also be done at parliamentary level where nothing is happening. For example, I refer to a Schuman report issued last November that was an appallingly scurrilous report on Ireland and the entire scenario under discussion. It was gratuitously insulting and the issue must be addressed.

The final point I wish to make pertains to something I came across recently. Our costs, salaries and wages are too high. As the latter are among the highest in Europe, everyone criticises us. I refer to the recent OECD report. Funnily enough, very little time, attention or focus has been placed on property prices in parallel with salaries and wages. The simple reason salaries and wages are higher in Ireland than in most other European countries is people here could not afford to buy or rent a house in the market that prevailed between 2003 and 2009. This is the appalling fact. Consequently, when our European colleagues complain and criticise, with justification, that we are the highest paid in the eurozone, they must also recognise that through whatever system was in operation, we reached a point where we also had the highest property prices which reached an appallingly high level.

I will conclude by noting that two years ago I saw a property advertised in the south of France. It was a former Cistercian monastery on 25 ha with 15 bedrooms, Gothic architecture. It was a period residence with everything one could ask for. Its asking price in Irish newspapers was €1.1 million and the theory was that were a similar property offered for sale in Ireland, one would be talking about a price of at least €10 million for such a trophy. That comparison spells out the mistakes we have made and the stupidity of what went on. Moreover, there is a case to be answered and I do not believe people in Ireland can walk away with impunity. Instead, charges could be levelled. I believe there were cases in which there was misgovernance and malfeasance of a serious nature that those responsible will be held accountable in the courts at some stage.

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