Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I fully support the call for a debate on the banking system. I was astonished to hear about the high level of prices in Ireland on a radio programme as I was driving to Dublin this morning. The chairman of the Competition Authority was a participant in the debate, as was the chairman of the Consumers Association of Ireland and the chief executive of RGDATA. The Director of Consumer Affairs refused to participate on the grounds that it was not a matter in which the director had any responsibility, being to do with inflation. I am beginning to wonder what job the director actually does. We now know that the banks ripped us off from 1999 to 2002 during the period of transition to the single currency. It is time the House had a look at the role of the Director of Consumer Affairs.

The issue of race and immigration is important. We had an interesting and colourful contribution from one Member on the Government side during the passage of the recent legislation dealing with the accession countries. In Cork an interesting and disgusting display took place during the last general election campaign. I know the attitude of the Government to this because one of the central figures in that display subsequently became Chairman of an Oireachtas committee but I am a little disturbed to find that Fine Gael is recruiting the other half of that "Dumb and Dumber" set.