Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

Before the recess, the House is looking forward to the Taoiseach or the relevant Minister announcing a bank inquiry, which presumably will include the issue of the guarantee in 2008. It is important that this inquiry has the right shape and protection. I say this because last night the Committee of Public Accounts was forced to park an inquiry into the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, DDDA. That inquiry was torpedoed through the combination of a letter from the chairman of the DDDA and a previous letter from the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government stating there was a danger of the inquiry prejudicing a court case taking place currently.

Oireachtas inquiries have a very poor record of coming to conclusions because vested interests have continuously been able to frustrate them by taking them, for one reason or another, to the Four Courts. The Abbeylara inquiry, the CTC inquiry, the Judge Curtin inquiry, the Callely inquiry and now the DDDA investigation have all been frustrated because of legal threats. I would like the Taoiseach to specify how he intends to subvert this danger with the bank inquiry when it is set up. The danger for the bank inquiry is that rich bankers with great resources and ingenuity will be down in the Four Courts on day one attempting to frustrate it. On the record of past inquiries, that is what is likely to happen. Can the Taoiseach give the House some indication of how the Government intends to make this an effective inquiry that will not be frustrated by sometimes contrived visits to the Four Courts?

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