James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The dogs in the street know they are the people who destroyed our economy. They wrecked our banking system and were responsible for Ireland losing her hard fought independence. We need to activate the legislation to bring those to book and to see them punished. The ordinary people, the vulnerable, the sick and disabled, who are being targeted for cutbacks over the past six years, want to see those people prosecuted and punished. The people who led the Irish economy into this mess should not be let off the hook to retire on massive pension packages, bonuses and other types of payments. The people of my constituency and the public are not happy with the length of time it is taking to bring serious charges against those who knowingly destroyed our country's finances.

I ask if the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is understaffed. What is the delay in bringing those people to justice? How can it be in our best interests to pay promissory notes and billions of euro to anonymous, nameless bondholders when the new poor and the vulnerable are suffering disproportionately while some people who bankrupted this State are not unduly suffering or affected?

Most Members of the House remember the chaos of September 2008 and the blanket €440 billion guarantee of Irish banks. This guarantee ruined Ireland's credit-worthiness. There was a mistaken belief in Europe that no European bank must be allowed to fail. The European approach was that everything possible should be done to protect bank creditors. As part of that process the ECB extended a bottomless pit of emergency funding to Anglo Irish Bank in order to allow it repay its bondholders in full.

Nothing in life is free. When this Government came to office the new Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, was met with a tap on the back from the European Central Bank asking for its bottomless pit of money back. The Minister was left with the job of having to restructure the promissory note arrangement.

It is important to recognise the efforts made by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, in dealing with our situation and the fundamental shift at European level in dealing with countries in trouble in comparison to when we were centre stage in late 2010.

In the wake of the troika leaving Cyprus, it is remarkable how the Cypriots represent a complete reversal of European policy from the approach adopted towards Ireland. Europe backed us into a corner on paying back the bondholders and now they say there is no sympathy for Ireland because we led ourselves into this mess. That is not the case. It was bad government, bad regulation and the golden circle of people like David Drumm who knowingly led us into this economic nightmare. They are the ones for whom Europe should have no sympathy. It is unfair to blame innocent Irish people for the doings of a reckless few.

White collar crime among bankers and former politicians has impacted upon every taxpayer in the country, and it is important that we do not turn a blind eye to that. The general public are frustrated by the apparent inability to call those people to account. They should not be perceived to be above the law as it is an outrage and insult to our democracy. There are no legal or moral obligations on ordinary people to pay for private banking debt but the Minister knows best how to get our markets right, and I will not question his judgment.

See this speech in context