Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

First of all, while you are here, a Cheann Comhairle, I wish to say that what happened earlier this morning was seriously regrettable. The Chief Whip or assistant Chief Whip should come to the Chamber and apologise to the House for what happened. Numerous people were here. In fairness to those from Fianna Fáil, they were here in significant numbers. Others were here as well.

I waited myself for more than 20 minutes. I believe that an apology is due. One of the most abused terms in recent times has been "new politics". This morning was an absolute example of new politics at its worst, where it is all about show and not about content. It has very little seriousness to do with the current challenges which face Ireland as a country as we enter a period of very significant financial risk once again. If there are purposes to this debate, one of them ought to be that it gives us some valuable learning that we can use as we face into this next crisis. If there is to be a new politics and if Deputies of the Government party, of whom I saw only three while I was here for 20 minutes, have a problem with coming here at 10.30 a.m. on a Friday, with access to phones and so on, we should have been able to arrange a postponement for a half an hour or so in order that the House could resume in an orderly fashion.

In relation to this investigation, I have heard quite a few people going into the dreadful history of Anglo Irish Bank and its subsequent sorting out in large measure by the previous Government. The people who are now pontificating at great length in arrears on stuff that they were, to be honest, quite terrified about at the time really ought to pay attention to what is happening at the moment in the Italian banks and whether that is going to have serious knock-on consequences for Ireland in the months to come. We have a number of people here who are very proud supporters of the Brexit campaign in the UK in which the extreme right met the extreme left. All the rest of us in the different countries have been left to pick up the pieces.

I doubt that many Deputies of any party in the Dáil hold much of a candle for well-off bankers who are paid astronomical and disgusting sums, often for very little other than promoting and developing the share price of the banks in question. In wishing Mr. Justice Brian Cregan well with this investigation and in wishing for a speedy conclusion in which all of the questions that people have are answered, I hope that we can focus as a Chamber on the challenges that now face us as a consequence of the UK leaving the EU and the extreme difficulties and uncertainty that that will pose for banking.

I know it is not fashionable to say this, but in this city, in Waterford, in Wexford and the south east, there are very many Irish people - graduates and others - who work in banking, in the financial services and in the development of financial technology and they are very happy to be so working. A previous speaker seemed to be condemning everybody who works in a financial institution or a financial capacity. To be perfectly honest, I only wish that perhaps a bigger accounting firm had been looking after the accounts of the charity Console in order that those accounts could have been properly looked after. The people who are dependent on the services of the organisation for counselling could have had the resources of an organisation that everybody acknowledges was being used to great effect to help people, particularly siblings and family members who had been affected by suicide. We need a little bit of honesty here. We need to be honest about things.

See this speech in context