Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute on this matter. I welcome an investigation. I have not been in the Dáil for long, but I have seen something. As Deputy Ross stated, the banking inquiry is taking place down the corridor. The more one learns about this place and that no one will be crucified or made to pay a price for doing wrong, the more one grows frustrated. I have always understood that, when one does wrong, one pays the price. One does the time if one does the crime. Sadly, a certain group of elite people in Ireland are allowed to do whatever they want and walk away without consequence whereas every youngster and mother and father in Ireland is at home working hard and paying the price for what happened in this country over the past ten, 15 or 20 years. No one has been held accountable and the same types of people are investigating.

We are debating appointing a judge to investigate this matter, but we need to look outside Ireland. This is a small country. As with the scientists whom I have dealt with down the years, we need to look further afield. We have accountancy firms that seem to get all the jobs. The same people are looking at the same problems. As in any walk of life, when someone gets to know people, he or she will not kick them as hard as an outsider who does not know them might, an outsider who tries to do something in the interests of what is right for the country.

IBRC and NAMA involved the single largest movement of private debt onto the public's shoulders. The people of Ireland will be paying for what has happened for years. Although I am iffy on whether there will be any, I hope that there will be answers about what interest rates people were paying and whether there was cronyism. The more I look at the cronyism in this country, the sicker I get. Some people are being looked after better than others.

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