Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Leas-Cheann Comhairle is aware from the work he does with me as a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, when we go to communities in Northern Ireland and speak to people from Northern Ireland, there is a recurring theme - the past. It keeps coming back to bite us and people want to know how the past affects their everyday lives. People in Northern Ireland have a burning desire to deal with that past in order to move forward. The big question on everybody's lips is how that will be addressed. The US envoy, Dr. Richard Haass, is moving between London, Dublin and Belfast, working on a formula to address the terrible atrocities and damage done to the communities in Northern Ireland and the devastation whose legacy weighs on many individuals there.

The Leas-Cheann Comhairle may wonder why I refer to this when talking about this Private Members' motion on banking and credit flow to small and medium enterprises. I mention it because I want to know whether we can seriously and legitimately, as a group which represents the people, talk about banking without talking about the past. Can we move forward from the damage and the devastation caused to individuals, parishes, communities, families and society by poor judgment, lack of transparency and regulation and disregard for the way in which we should lead our lives? The perpetrators of this long-term damage have contributed to a lost generation and decade. We will lose a decade as a result of the decisions and irresponsible behaviour of people who were in charge of banking, be it in the banking sector or government.

To move forward we need a formula and we do not have one. We are grappling with ideas and asking how we deal with the banking past because we have to learn from the mistakes of the past and we cannot repeat them. One thinks of sayings such as "past performance is obviously a good indicator of future performance", and "it will happen again" and "there are bubbles and bursts", but we owe it to the lost generation to deal with the devastation this has caused for many individuals, such as those in the Mayo constituency of the Minister of State for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ring, who have to fly from Knock to London every Monday morning, leaving their families for five days, and fly home on Friday to see them. Young people in my county are going to Boston and Australia to find work because there is none here because of the devastation caused by the past. People do not forget what has happened to them and will not forget it. They need justice for themselves and to see justice done to people in positions of responsibility. Who takes responsibility?

There is an underlying or perhaps an overarching theme relating to the way our democratic system works in this country. If individuals in a position of responsibility do something wrong, what are the consequences and repercussions for them? Irish people do not ask for much. They simply want justice, fairness and answers. Each Member of the House has a responsibility in this regard. I do not say this in a party political way because we were not in government when this happened. Our responsibility is to come up with a formula to deal with the legacy issues of banking, the consequent devastation and the resulting damage.

Let us consider the plight of a couple now living in a two-bedroom apartment somewhere in this city, who took out a mortgage for €600,000 and have three children ranging between four to eight years of age. They are living in a two-bedroom apartment because they cannot get out of negative equity or move on to buy a new house. We owe it to the lost generation and we also owe it to the people who have been placed in an unenviable position whereby their lives have been devastated and their opportunity has been taken away. That is our job as legislators. Some of us in the body politic may believe we are constantly being castigated and people in the House can give out about various shows on the radio. However, there is an anger among people and our job is to deal with that anger. We must come up with a formula because the people are owed that if nothing else.

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