Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Then, before we go home, No. 20 will be tabled. This is an amendment to the terms of reference of the Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis, which also will be taken without debate. We will debate only No. 18. For the record, no debate will be held on the terms of reference of the banking inquiry, which people will find very strange, and there also will be no debate on the amendment of the terms of reference of the joint committee. The Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis has been established and it has produced a report. Until this point, its terms of reference have only allowed it to produce a report on how to get the business up and running. No. 20, a motion on the amended terms of reference of the committee, which begins on page 1902 of the Dáil Order Paper of today, will not be debated this evening. It is important these procedural matters are right in the interests of conducting the inquiry. I hope the fact no debate will take place will not in some way go against the inquiry down the road.

Everybody knows there is a need for a full inquiry and everybody I know supports it. Fianna Fáil will support it and will fully co-operate with it. I am speaking not only about current members of the parliamentary party, but also about former members, who will fully co-operate with this approach. We must ask ourselves about the genesis of the three motions before the House and it is very clear. The Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution (Houses of the Oireachtas Inquiries) Bill went before the public by way of referendum in November 2011 and it was defeated. The people stated they did not want politicians in Oireachtas Éireann carrying out this inquiry. What did the Government do? It did not listen. It came back with plan B, which was to do it anyway regardless of what the people stated.

The Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Act 2013 was passed in the Dáil on 3 July 2013. It is very important to state for the record and for anyone listening that the committee received no new constitutional powers compared to previous committees. The committee has not one scintilla more power over and above the famous Abbeylara inquiry. There has been no change to the Constitution and the Oireachtas has no more powers. No matter how powerful it is, the committee can make no findings which can impinge on the character or reputation of an individual. We are dealing with legislation for an Abbeylara-style committee, and all the talk in the Chamber about changing legislation does not change the constitutional framework under which we operate.

The Oireachtas has already shown serious bias when the Taoiseach spoke about an axis of collusion between my party and a particular bank. We have always said we believe the most appropriate way to deal with an inquiry is a Leveson-type inquiry carried out by an independent judge. We saw on our television screens that it worked very well in England. It is the best model. It is the model in which the public has trust. The public does not trust politicians to act fairly and impartially in this. That said, it is the only show in town to get some information, and for that reason Fianna Fáil will co-operate fully and thoroughly with every aspect of it. Another route should have been taken, but the Government chose not to do so.

The people of Ireland will rightly ask how much this will cost. The motion before us should have given an estimate of the cost to be incurred by the Irish taxpayer, and the Dáil should not give a blank cheque for the inquiry.

A financial motion should be attached outlining a budget and if it is exceeded they should at least come back on a later date.

I wish the inquiry well, but it only represents the Government's Plan B. It was never its first choice and it is nobody's first choice. It is not the public's desired way of doing business. They said "No" to the Oireachtas doing inquiries in a referendum, but the Government is proceeding with its own Government majority and its own Government Chair. Despite all the shortcomings, Fianna Fáil will fully co-operate with that inquiry.

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