Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the Taoiseach was adamant that the Oireachtas inquiry into the collapse of the financial and banking system, under the Bill proposed by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, would be more than adequate to hold bankers and all involved to account. We know that is not the case. No sooner were we finished yesterday than the Taoiseach's spokesperson was briefing journalists in the main newspapers that the Cabinet had been discussing the matter and was considering giving extra powers to such an inquiry via a re-run of the referendum on Oireachtas inquiries. That seems to suggest an admission on the part of the Government that the Bill of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform does not have the powers to hold bankers to account. I have put forward an alternative view: that the Tribunal of Inquiry Bill 2005, which provides for a radically different version of the tribunals we have had in the past and much of which was used in the Leveson inquiry in the UK, is a model that can hold bankers to account. People are expecting that bankers will be held to account, given the revelations in the Irish Independent tapes.

In terms of the culture and power of bankers, they have been given additional power by the Government to put pressure on people in mortgage arrears. The Government has changed legislation to give banks greater powers to repossess family homes without conditions attached. The Government has changed the code of practice in respect of how banks deal with customers and mortgage arrears. There is now no limit to the amount of contact between banks and people in mortgage arrears. I am talking to families out there in mortgage arrears who cannot put bread on the table because they are trying to meet payments.

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