Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendment. The previous Government, with the then Secretary General of the Department of Finance, Mr. Moran, took a decision to openly invite vulture companies to invest here. We decided to sell the country when things were bad and we are trying to buy it back now that it has become expensive. The vulture funds are here to make a quick buck. Lives have been lost as a result of what some of them have done. They are crucifying people and they show no mercy. Their only concern is figures and how much profit they can make. For every €1 they invest, they will get at least €2, if not €3 or €4, back. What have we done? We have let them away with every scam in the past five or six years to ensure they do not pay taxes. They can get away with whatever they want because they bought assets when the country was in a bad state. They have screwed Irish people and rather than crucifying them, we are allowing them to use whatever loopholes they can find, patting them on the back and telling them what great fellows they are. When one is robbed one generally tries to catch the robber and put him in jail. These vulture funds have robbed Governments and citizens and, worse still, they have robbed lives, yet we are not doing anything about it. It is about time the Oireachtas put these fellows back in their boxes. We should screw them in whatever way we can and impose whatever penalties we can on them for what they have done to this country.

See this speech in context