Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Painted outside the Ministry for Truth in George Orwell's "1984" are the three slogans of the ruling party: War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; and Ignorance is Strength. Does the Taoiseach have any plans to paint slogans outside Government Buildings? If he does, perhaps he could add two more slogans to those three classics, namely, Competent is Compromise; and Independent is Dependent.

Just last Thursday, the Tánaiste and Leader of the Labour Party, came into the Dáil and repeatedly stated that what she favoured was an independent inquiry by a competent authority. Instead, we have a review by KPMG of a sale of Siteserv in which it was involved. This was a company on whose board a number of people with close connections to KPMG sat and in regard to a bank for which it acted as liquidator. Thus it was utterly compromised and utterly dependent and connected with those it is meant to be investigating and is incapable of providing any answers people will be satisfied with.

Does the Taoiseach think this investigation meets what the Tánaiste was calling for last Thursday? Is it an independent inquiry by a competent authority?

The doublespeak of the Government is not confined to this non-inquiry. The Minister, Deputy Noonan, in answers to parliamentary questions repeatedly indicated there was nothing to see here. With a question last December from Deputy Catherine Murphy that explicitly asked if the Minister was aware of higher bids for Siteserv, he did not answer that point. We know now that he was aware of such bids. The Minister was asked if he was satisfied that IBRC had acted in the best financial interests of the State but he did not answer the question; we know now that he was not fully satisfied to that effect. On 4 February this year, he was asked why he did not query the reason for such a large loss to the State.

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