Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the time I have I want to make two brief points. First, there seems to be a view forming that the Government does not want the inquiry to go beyond the date of the blanket guarantee and certainly not into its period in office. The decision of the Government to continue the previous Government's policy of repaying in full the senior bondholders of the banks needs to be investigated and understood. In terms of the financial cost to the State, that decision was probably the second most important decision taken, and yet it is one where we know almost nothing to explain it and explain why both Government parties felt they had to do a U-turn on their election promises. It seems fairly certain that this Government came under external pressure to make that decision, but without an investigation we do not know and we will not be able to determine how fair, or otherwise, the pressure put on them was.

Second, it is certain that Patrick Neary as regulator, the then senior people in the Department of Finance and the Central Bank, senior bankers and Fianna Fáil and Green Party politicians will be brought before the committee, but there has been very limited reference to senior ECB officials being called before the committee, in particular Jean-Claude Trichet. His period as head of the ECB spans both the current and previous Governments' terms of office and his evidence would be very helpful in understanding the crisis. Mr. Trichet's dismissive response to this proposal is completely unacceptable and must be challenged. A serious concern about this inquiry is that it is more about politics than establishing the truth. Ensuring the entire period of relevance would be inquired into would help to allay some of those concerns. I ask the Minister to consider that.

I strongly support both amendments to the motion before us.

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