Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Howlin, who is leaving the Chamber, applauded what he described as the healthy scepticism of officials from the Department of Finance. That is nothing to the scepticism of the general public, as they review this debacle. If anybody imagines it has been lost on people that the Minister and the system, over a number of years, dodged and evaded questions that were asked about the IBRC generally and the Siteserv transaction in particular, they are very wrong. If the Minister or anybody else believes that the cobbled together, ham fisted internal review has been met with anything other than deep scepticism and disappointment by the general public, they are even more deluded than I might have imagined.

In setting up this review by KPMG, the Government has conceded that the process itself is flawed and compromised and that it cannot stand over its impartiality. What astonishes me in the midst of all of this controversy is that the Government appears to be prepared to do anything rather than what is necessary. What is required is a commission of inquiry. It might be legally intricate, as the Minister, Deputy Howlin, says, and it might be demanding and take some time, but it is our considered view that only a commission of inquiry can get the full facts. Only a commission of inquiry will have the necessary powers to investigate not just the Siteserv transaction but a much broader scope of transactions between IBRC and other parties.

In the appointment of Mr. Justice O'Neill, the Government concedes a direct and apparent conflict of interest. It is almost comedy to hear the Minister say that this learned person, whose integrity is beyond doubt, is put in place in case there is a conflict of interest. The real reason Mr. Justice O'Neill has been asked to take the position is that the conflict of interest is so apparent and evident. Whatever about the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, in a posture of self defence, trying to sell this approach to people, it is astonishing to hear the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, echo his words and fight so valiantly for a process that is so clearly ineffectual and compromised from the start.

People watching all of this must ask whether anything has been learned not just from the economic and consequent social catastrophe that they have endured, but also from the decade and more of tribunals where the toxic corruption at the heart of this State and the public administration was revealed in unedifying detail time and again. That toxic political culture which, regrettably, seeps into our administration is based on cosy relationships, cronyism and a deplorable sense of entitlement among a few in Irish society. Taxpayers and citizens have watched all of this for many long years. Then this issue arises. What does the Government and the Ministers, Deputies Noonan and Howlin, do, backed to the hilt by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste? They kick for touch.

I quoted the Tánaiste's words to her recently in the Chamber. She had said a number of years ago, quite correctly, that people were sick to the back teeth of the same old, same old - the same narrative, the same themes and, in many cases, the same personalities coming to notice again and again. She was right when she said that, and she is wrong to defend this approach in respect of these dealings. It is simply wrong. Defend it as the Government will, nobody is buying it. The correct and honourable thing to do is establish a commission of investigation and not mind electoral cycles. The issues, questions and dilemmas that this brings forth for us as a society, for our political culture and our public administration are far more serious and long lasting than any single electoral event.

I support the motion and I reject the Government's amendment. I deplore its strategy of kicking for touch. More to the point, the people we serve do not buy the Government's story or alibi for a minute, all the more so as water bills arrive on their mats. Who does the Government think it is fooling?

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