Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the people doing the work here well, but we should ask a fundamental question. Whom is this inquiry for? It is for the people of Ireland. It is for the 1.5 million people whose lives have been ripped apart and turned inside out, 500,000 of whom are abroad.

The circumstances, the pathology of what happened, are very simple. We do not need to get expert lawyers or expert forensic accountants; plain balance sheet analysis will do it. Seven years from 2001 to 2008 explains it all. Our domestic banking system grew from three times national income to 5.5 times national income - that is a credit Ponzi scheme.

Who is in charge of all the banks, whether Irish banks or foreign-owned banks, in the domestic banking economy? The boards of directors are. We had a motion supported by Fianna Fáil, all other Opposition parties and Independent Deputies, stating that the terms of reference should start with a review of the balance sheets of the licensed deposit-taking banks from 2001 to 2008 and that the men and women who were on the boards of directors for those years should be asked to attend and just listen to the narrative of what the balance sheets tell us. They grew at a phenomenal, stupid rate. They grew because the funding was stupid. It is not possible to have stupid lending without having stupid funding. One cannot drive a car somewhere unless one has the fuel - that is the funding.

So we do not need esoteric and obtuse-type thinking. We need to be honest to the people of Ireland and get all those men and women, who were on the boards of the banks during those years, to just attend in an assembly, like a school assembly. We then need to talk them through the balance sheets of each of those banks with the auditors behind them in the assembly. It is simple.

On the night of the bank guarantee Merrill Lynch had given about six days' advice and it had already gone bust in America. So because the headed notepaper looked good the Government of the day was diddled into bringing in Merrill Lynch which had been forcibly taken over by Bank of America. There are facts here which if spoken out in a narrative will give the truth.

One hundred families tonight are in deep distress that will last for a minimum of ten years and perhaps 20 years because they have legacy mortgage debt from this credit pyramid Ponzi scheme. They do not have an escape. The Tánaiste had two hours hemmed in a car, which was awful for her, but they have 20 years hemmed in their houses because of the irresponsibility of the establishment.

Our motion in this House was voted down by a Government whip. That motion would have allowed us to start the inquiry - like a triage - with those balance sheets, but it was not done. Again under a whip system, NAMA legislation on 16 September 2009 was rushed through with half an hour of preparation. The legislation was still hot from the photocopying machine in people's hands. That is wrong. The IBRC liquidation legislation was again hot with the vote stupidly at 1 a.m.

Down on the desk of the Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Patrick Honohan, there are €25 billion worth of prom bonds that should be cancelled. That would more than cover the €10 billion needed for restructuring, reconditioning and re-setting up the country's water infrastructure, including reservoirs, treatment plants and pipes, instead of trying to squeeze it out of an already mercilessly squeezed population. It is wrong.

Taking €10 billion from €25 billion leaves €15 billion which would leave a lot for other capital projects which would generate income, employment and the return of skilled people to carry out those capital works. It would also underpin the social protection for the vulnerable in society who for the past four years have been beaten up and steamrolled by taking away the basic allowances and supports they have. Twenty-six people - one from each county - should go down to the Central Bank and say, "Patrick, give us those bonds. We're cancelling them and we are telling Mr. Draghi why."

That is the story the people of Ireland need to hear and not an inquiry that will take up huge amounts in professional costs and get lost. Who here honestly read the Honohan, Watson and Regling, and Nyberg reports? I reckon it was maybe 2,000 people in the entire country. It is meaningless stuff because the balance sheets show that the credit boom here caused it all.

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