Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am. It is factual. We all know it because it is in the public domain thanks to the judge and the reports. There was a clamp down on the media and it could not be reported.

We had three decades of tribunals. I went up to the Taoiseach's office recently about the so-called investigation into NAMA because I object to the chair the judge appointed. It is another cover up. We asked the question, which someone else also asked of the officials, what have all these tribunals cost us. I was told the figure is well north of three quarters of a billion euro. There has been one prosecution after 25 or 30 years. It is a joke. As I said, the solicitor went off from the DPP's office and we are told now he could not take a statement. He was unable to take a statement and he was working in the DPP's office for years and probably decades. Company law here is clearly smashed and broken by Anglo. We all know that. I have a small company. There are many people in companies. We know how delicate and difficult the law is. Compliance is very important. We have to obey and so does the ordinary man in the street, who has been put into penury. Their children and grandchildren have been put into penury as a result of the actions of these people. This sham of a trial that went on is a total smokescreen because they are all in it together. Certain senior politicians are in it. The senior civil servants are being rewarded and now they want to get a restoration of their pay and they want to get their privileged position back. They have their hands on the handlebars of power and it does not matter who is in government. It most definitely will not be the Minister, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, because she will probably be gone out of her office next week. I wish her well. It will be like St. Leo saying it was like that when he got here. They will be cavalier and move on. They will forget about the people and forget they were elected to represent the people and to stand by our Constitution. It has been made a mockery off throughout 2016 and in the past ten years because these people are not held accountable to anybody.

The new head of the ODCE picked up the pieces and ran off to the DPP. They are complaining they do not have the resources. The Minister has given them seven new gardaí. They had five already. We have problems in the gardaí too. They cannot even investigate themselves.

Did the Minister say there were six?

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