Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have raised with the Taoiseach on a number of occasions the lack of accountability with the high rollers, with the elites, with the golden circles in this State. This blatant lack of accountability contrasts sharply with how people of few means and little power or influence are treated. This goes to the heart of public alienation from politics and disillusionment with the agencies of this State. The Taoiseach's answers today will not assuage people's concerns.

I have also raised with him the need for this State to get serious about white-collar crime, the need to develop a proper and credible approach to investigating and prosecuting such offences. Yesterday, the State's trial of the former chairman of the Anglo Irish Bank, Seán FitzPatrick, collapsed. My focus is not on that trial, it is on role of the ODCE in this sorry affair and the lack of will by the establishment to investigate white-collar crime. In 2016, there were 35 staff in the ODCE. They were assisted by five gardaí. This gives an insight into the State's attitude towards white-collar crime and corporate enforcement. Under the Taoiseach's watch the staff of this office has been cut from 42 to 35. The number of gardaí has been cut by half. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, the then Minister, Deputy Micheál Martin, refused requests from the office to increase its workforce by 20. The office at that time described its resources as wholly inadequate. The Taoiseach of the day, Bertie Ahern, dismissed this. That was when the bankers were running amok. They cost the people of this State billions of euro and yet there is still no law against reckless lending. In 2014, the lack of resources to which I refer was highlighted by a senior barrister who said, "It's enough to make the tin-pot dictator of a banana republic blush." It was not a Shinner who said that, it was an individual who is an expert in white-collar crime and a senior barrister. Of course, if someone is accused of welfare fraud, the full weight of this Government will be visited on them. When it comes to wrecking the economy, reckless lending, fixers fees and complex interest relating to billions of euro, however, the State looks the other way. This Government spends €5 million on the ODCE. That is €5 million to investigate white-collar crime. As Deputy Pearse Doherty pointed out, by contrast it spends over €17 million on our membership of the European Space Agency. Is that where its priorities lie? It is little wonder that the judge in the Seán FitzPatrick trial pointed out the shortcomings of the investigation conducted by the ODCE.

Even at this late stage would the Taoiseach agree that we should draw on international best practice for tackling white-collar crime and that we should get rid of the ODCE and replace it with appropriate and properly-resourced agencies and strong, robust legislation?

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