Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to contribute to this Second Stage debate. This legislation has been rushed. It has a nice title but there is little else in it. Like other speakers I am concerned. I was a Member of the previous Dáil and I saw the Government when in opposition objecting on a regular basis - often with good reason - to the use of guillotines. However, the Government has excelled itself with guillotines since it came to office.

A referendum on this issue was conducted last year. Many people on this side of the House, especially on the Independent benches, were given no credit by the media when they pointed out that the proposal was flawed and fraught with dangers. It was ultimately rejected by the people and rightly so, in my view, because it was a rushed proposal. This Government has become a little punch-drunk because of the size of its majority. I said this to the Taoiseach. The Government thinks it is infallible: its members have been carried away by the massive mandate from the people.

I am not in favour of tribunals which cost a fortune. I contrast the tribunals with the report on the Magdalene laundries by former Senator Martin McAleese which cost €11,000, a paltry sum for an excellent job done in quick time with a lot of hard work and engagement. Nothing has happened as a result of the Mahon tribunal and other tribunals. They were only talking shops, making fat cats even fatter out of the barristers from the law courts.

I am in favour of a banking inquiry. It beggars belief that five years on, we have not had such an inquiry. I will not be eligible to sit on the committee because I have been loud in my condemnation of what happened with the bankers, the gangsters, the chancers and also the regulators. Secretaries General and others were sent off to Europe afterwards. I know I should not mention Mr. Cardiff. People had to be sent off because of what they knew. The regulator was asleep at the wheel. These people allowed our country to be plundered and literally destroyed - I could use stronger words - and the problem was put onto the people who have to pay for everything.

I met a group from Permanent TSB before I came to the Chamber. These people took early retirement packages which are now worthless, having been unilaterally cut by between 48% and 58% by the end of this month. This is how the ordinary people are being treated, including the ordinary front-line bank workers who did no harm to anybody. They did their job and they were not responsible. The chief executive officer of that same bank is earning €400,000 and not a penny reduction in salary.

It is time we had some real political accountability. The House needs to treat this issue seriously, not to be like Deputy Heather Humphreys who has read out a statement from the Fine Gael press office attacking Deputy John McGuinness. I would expect Deputy McGuinness to stand aside if there were to be an investigation into aspects of his involvement. He is an honourable man and I would not expect any less from him. He would not have to be told by some of the Fine Gael backbenchers to do that.

I lived through the night of the bank guarantee. We were summoned to Dublin and told if we did not vote for this bank guarantee the roof would fall in on the country and there would be no money in the ATMs and most, if not all, credit unions would go broke. We did not know what to do. We voted for it to avoid the abyss. Foolishly, I voted for it, on the lies that were told to the then Deputy Brian Lenihan and the lies are still being told to this Government, nothing short of lies-----

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