Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an gcoiste fiosrúcháin seo agus na téarmaí tagartha atáimid ag plé chun déanamh cinnte go mbeidh seans acu déileáil le ceist mhór na mbanc agus an teip iomlán a tharla ar an gcóras airgeadais sa tír seo thar na blianta deireanacha. Guím gach rath ar an gcoiste sin mar tá obair mhór roimhe. I welcome the terms of reference of the inquiry and I wish the inquiry well. The committee members have a significant job in front of them. I do not think any of them have shirked so far from it. In some ways I wish them well and that they will have the time and the timeframe within which to carry out their work. On the other hand, I hope they do not because I want a general election as soon as possible. However, the issues before the committee need to be investigated, and the committee must reach findings of fact. We must learn very specifically from what happened at that stage to ensure the mistakes of the period are never repeated or heaped upon future generations.

I am concerned at the delay in getting to this stage. We are more than three years into the Government’s term of office, which got elected on a promise that there would be a banking inquiry. We would be a lot better off if the inquiry was put in place in the first year of the Government’s term of office, but it fiddled and fumbled along the way. However, we are where we are and we must deal with the current situation. Even though there is a tight timeframe, the public has a wish and demand for findings of fact to be made about what went wrong. The public also wish to see the wrongdoers brought to justice. That is not in the terms of reference; that is for a court and the authorities outside of this House to deliver on. We must ensure we do not set the expectations of the public too high. Nobody will be held to account following the inquiry, but findings of fact will be made and people will be able to draw their own conclusions. Perhaps those findings of fact would be useful in court proceedings in the future. Given where we are today, at the very least we must ensure that the breaches of regulations, the obscene greed that characterised that period of the property bubble among some in banking and property speculation in the State, is never replicated and that brakes are put in place. Those brakes can be legislated for in this House, based on the findings of the committee. Some of the brakes are in place but they are not enough.

There are serious constraints on the committee in terms of its workload. They will be in the bunker morning, noon and night for the next six months at least trying to extract the teeth of what went wrong from people who to date have not been as forthcoming as they should have been, and why there was a different approach to the Irish banking collapse than to other countries in Europe. Perhaps such information could also be gleaned. We must establish why it took so long to react, why the rules, laws and guidelines that were in place were ignored and continuously ignored and not implemented. Unfortunately, some of the arrogance that characterised that period has begun to creep in again. We, as politicians in this House, must send out the message that we will do our damnedest to ensure the situation does not reach the heights it gained previously and that we will put a brake on that type of speculation and gambling with people’s lives.

We know that €64 billion was put into the banks. One of the things we cannot fully quantify is the effect not only on people in Ireland but also on all of those who had to emigrate as a consequence. Many families had to go through the trauma of repossessions or very constrained financial situations. That is something I hope the committee members have at the back of their mind. I hope everyone who is called before the committee to give evidence will remember that their evidence covers a period that will have a consequence on the life of every man, woman and child in Ireland for many generations to come.

The committee members and those who will be coming before it will need to be honest and upfront and will need to endeavour to help society to learn the lessons from that period in order that we can be helped to frame a better future.

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