Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said yesterday we are discussing a situation in which tens of thousands of people in this country are now existing for their families and living for banks because of the pressure that is on them and the way this thing happened. It all happened through a culture in which banks, developers and members of the Deputy's party were heavily involved. We must find out what happened; we need to understand that culture. Due to the fact that particular behaviour was investigated by the Garda, files were confiscated and sent directly to the Garda. The DPP is now in receipt of all those documents and charges have been preferred against a number of individuals. That process is under way.

However, we need to find out about the elements of what happened during the run in to the guarantee being given and the way it was given. I do not have the answers to that, but I expect the parliamentary system would be able to bring to public awareness, in public, why much of this happened. That inquiry cannot, as the Deputy correctly said, say that person X is guilty of this or that, but it can find out about the background, the connections, the decisions that were made and why they were made, without imputing guilt. That is in the public interest. However, it is something I do not want to see dragging on for eight, ten or 12 years where one makes millionaires of lawyers and nobody is called to account. There are two separate issues here.

The Deputy's question is about the behaviour of the banks in dealing with thousands who are under pressure with their mortgages and distressed mortgages. This morning I listened to the director of the personal insolvency agency, which is now open for business. There is an opportunity for the individual the Deputy mentioned to go to the personal insolvency service to deal with that matter. The service was introduced to provide a different option for persons who have mortgages to find a way out of the situation in which they find themselves.

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