Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues, na Teachtaí Ó Laoghaire and Pearse Doherty, for bringing forward this legislation. I also thank the other parties that have agreed to support it, Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party, Solidarity-People Before Profit, Independents 4 Change and the Rural Independent Group. I wish to express my disappointment in the Government for failing to support this Bill. The Independent Alliance will also be siding with the Government in opposing it.

The importance of the Bill has come to prominence lately due to the scandalous behaviour of the banks in robbing hundreds of millions of euro from tracker mortgage customers. Banks have once again proven that they think they are a law unto themselves. At present, investigation and prosecution of white-collar crime in Ireland is practically non-existent.

Figures I received last week show the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has brought no prosecutions or achieved no convictions for white-collar crime in the past two years. It seems the State is unwilling to hold the banks to account again. If multi-party lawsuits were available to ordinary citizens, it might prove to be an effective deterrent for future wrongdoings. By allowing people wronged in a similar fashion by the same defendant to pool their resources to take collective action as one makes sense and is a worthwhile initiative. It would result in lower legal costs as similar cases could be consolidated into one. It would ensure cases which are similar do not have to clog up the courts system with individual hearings. In addition, it would allow plaintiffs who individually might be scared of or apprehensive about taking action against a defendant due to the stress or cost involved, to work with others who have been wronged in the same way, as well as allowing them to access justice they might otherwise not be able to get.

As the legal maxim states, justice delayed is justice denied. Our courts system can be guilty of this at times. It is well documented that our legal system is under significant strain with a large number of cases in the courts system. Last month, Mr. Justice Sean Ryan said the Court of Appeal was coming to the point of being overwhelmed due to the number of cases waiting to be heard. Anything which can help reduce the strain on the courts system is most welcome. The Bill, which would allow for the consolidation of cases, would address this problem by resulting in fewer individual hearings, as well as being a cost-neutral solution.

I commend Deputies Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire and Pearse Doherty on introducing the Bill and stress the importance of the cross-party support it has received. I am disappointed the Government will oppose the Bill.

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