Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If that obnoxious, macho attitude was characteristic of the bankers and, let's face it, the system including the political system of the time, it would also be fair to say that what is characteristic of the system today is a "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" approach to mortgage distress. The Government is happy that progress is being made and the Minister stands up and gives his answer by rote. I have heard it before from his colleague, the Tánaiste. The Governor of the Central Bank comes to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and surprise, surprise, he sings the same song. Meanwhile back in the real world, people are still under the most enormous stress and they do not see a willingness to act and for accountability on the part of the system. They do not see those within the banking sector being held to account.

I am not asking the Minister to make comments or draw conclusions in the Dáil or elsewhere around criminal culpability in anything. I am asking him whether, when the regulator of the banks has in his possession tapes pertaining to Anglo Irish Bank, some of them become public and it appears or there is even a suggestion that there has been a ruse to fool or even defraud the State, it is not appropriate for the regulator of the bank to make sure all of the tapes are listened and scrutinised to make absolutely sure that information and material is passed on to the relevant authority? I would have thought that this was the most basic requirement of somebody who would claim to be a regulator. I not asking the Minister to make a comment on criminal culpability because he should not do that. I am asking him on behalf on the Government to say in this Chamber that it is not appropriate for the Governor to sit on his hands, that the material in his possession must be examined fully and that the outcome and materials should be passed on to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and An Garda Síochána to allow them to draw any appropriate conclusions. Let us not add to the public distress created by the system by yet again looking away from those who must be held accountable and punishing the people.

See this speech in context