Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Dukes and Mr. Aynsley failed to file an up-to-date statement of affairs up to the date of liquidation of IBRC and they were taken to court by former customers. I was there in the court that same day. A letter from the Minister for Finance - I will not name him but we all know him - was handed to the High Court judge, Ms Justice Laffoy, that day from the Minister himself. Was this the correct procedure - the Executive writing to a judge in open court? That happened, and the Minister's records will show that. Mr. Dukes and others were, as far as I am concerned, allowed to operate outside the law.

Is this a cosy Fine Gael cartel? That is my challenge here. The Minister can heap whatever he wants on previous Government but the ordinary people are being persecuted. They were told the Government would burn the bondholders. I sat here and listened to the former Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, tell us the fire was going to be so hot that hell's fire would not be a patch on it. Where are we now? We have all this going on under our noses. What about the common people, the plain people and, moreover, the people who are being evicted every day of the week? What about the business people I know of, whom the Minister's Oireachtas colleagues bring to him but whom he tells to go away because he does not want to know about it? These are the people who are being persecuted and downtrodden. What about the lady in Cashel in Tipperary who is being intimidated and bullied by NAMA after her husband committed suicide?

We will be here again in ten years' time or sooner. I might not be here but there will be people elected to this House who will enquire into NAMA. The Minister knows this better than I do. They will be here as sure as Deputy Durkan is sitting in the Chair tonight and reminding me of my responsibilities. We all have responsibilities to the people who elected us not to have this charade that is going on under our noses.

The Government has been forced into this. Where is the Taoiseach, Deputy Kenny? Where is the Tánaiste, Deputy Burton? I do not see them listed to speak, although maybe they will speak tomorrow or maybe they will be saved by the bell. I was listening to Oliver Callan the other day, who was portraying the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, looking for the Taoiseach. He was going to the Garda station to report he was missing for two weeks and could not be found. He can be found opening bottle banks in Mayo but he will not deal with the substantive issues.

There is a cosy cartel here that extends right around Fine Gael and goes back a long time. It goes back to where they came from and where they were conceived - some of the people and the party. They are all looking after themselves, not the ordinary people. They never looked after them. They are looking after the big people - big business and big bankers. That is who they are looking after, or, as Deputy Bannon would say, the men of the big houses with the dapper little lines running up the avenues to them.

I know what they are looking after when there is a write-down of €119 million for Siteserv. The whole process of the sale of Siteserv was despicable. The shareholders got €5 million for a thing that was bankrupt. We would not read it in a thriller. If it was not so serious, anyone would think it was comedy. A black comedy is what it is.

I say this to the Minister, Deputy Noonan, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, who will tell us how to get a lead out of pipes next. It is a magician he is going to be, when we know that every town and village in my county has lead pipes all over the streets and running into houses as well. We are now going to bully them in legislation that the Government forced through here. The former Minister, big Phil the enforcer, forced it through. Householders heard this morning that, by law, they are going to have to change their pipes inside. God knows what they will give them in the water next to put them to sleep altogether and make them comatose. It is the Ministers who are in a coma for the past four years and they think the people do not know about it. It is disgusting in the extreme what has gone on here.

The Minister for Justice and Equality may turn and say something to the Minister, Deputy Kelly, but I do not mind what she says. I am just telling the truth as the ordinary people know it. What is going on is a rotten stinking cesspit for the big people. I had business people in the House last week, having brought them here and there trying to get some kind of solace. Many of them are put to the pin of their collar, suicidal and forced to go in when they will not get a penny of social welfare. I salute the social welfare officers who have tried to help them because they are being terrorised. A cosy deal done and cosy cartels; it has not changed. You were going to have openness, transparency and NewERA, but you looked after your friends first and fooled the people and codded the people. You are not fooling the people any longer.

Whoever the judge is, I wish him time, patience and endurance. I hope he will have the resources to investigate this fully because the people smell the rot. It is like the blight in the potatoes, it is spreading so fast. The members of this Government will not escape. They cannot escape because they looked over this, they ignored it, and they actually supported it in many ways.

We know former taoisigh were on the board of IBRC and they were not from a certain party either but from a certain distinguished line. They had to have the blue blood to be in certain places. The Minister should be ashamed of himself. He got away lightly. He has the Midas touch and I wish him well, and in his health as well. To my near neighbour, I do not like saying this to him but he has dirt on his fingers on this. The people will be the final judge. As I said, we will be back here, in ten years time or whenever, dealing with the skulduggery and the corruption that is going on in NAMA, not to mention the corruption in this issue, not to mention the corruption in Irish Water. It is a corrupt organisation set up by this Government and forced through this House. I had 90 year old woman from Clonmel contact me tonight and she has been ringing me all day today-----

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