Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I will be sharing time with Deputy Seamus Healy.

The report states the commission's remit was to identify the causes of the crisis and related failures rather than to assign individual blame or responsibility. I cannot see what additional value the report brings over and above the reports already done. It is a very expensive report and it is unfortunate that it does not attach blame. If we are to change the culture that prevailed, responsibility must be assigned to individuals rather than the institutions which were managed. That responsibility must be taken on a personal level.

We know the consequences, with 1,000 people leaving every week to go into exile, rather than emigrating, and 440,000 people on the dole. At the same time we can see people walking away with golden handshakes, which is really sickening.

According to the report, the problems of Anglo Irish Bank were in plain sight as the funding strategy was concentrated on the speculative part of the market. The report investigates the banking system, but the system of development we embraced led to speculative development. I know that at local government level several of us fought for up to two decades to apply sense to the rezoning of land, but we were called nuisances and the anti-development crowd. We were accused of driving up house prices because we were trying to limit the availability of land. There is a relationship between speculation and land rezoning and perhaps we should revisit the Kenny report. In doing so we might avoid future problems.

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