Shane Ross (Independent)

I support this amendment, but I deeply regret that it is necessary. One of the problems is that it should not be necessary to have an investigator. However, it is necessary because we are not being told anything about what has been occurring. To a large extent, this debate is taking place in a vacuum. People are outraged at the result but they do not know why it has occurred. Today in the House, the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, made a speech, but he did not give us any good reason why the Minister changed his mind. Ten days before this decision was made the Minister for Finance gave an interview to The Irish Times in which he stated that the option of nationalisation was out. Now nationalisation is in and apparently it was always on the cards. However, there must have been a specific reason why the Government changed its mind in that period, but we do not know and we are not being told.

I agree with Senator Bacik that many questions put have not been answered. The only way to get the answers is through an investigator. I presume the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement need not publically reveal its findings. Will the Minister explain the position to the House? The Finance Regulator is investigating this matter. Will those findings be made public or will they be hidden behind closed doors like everything else in this episode? This whole tragic episode has been marked and coloured by the fact that neither the Oireachtas nor the taxpayer, nor the owners of Anglo Irish Bank have at any stage been told what is happening. Regrettably, the only way to get to the bottom of this is to have an investigator publicly explain the true extent of the debt and the truth about solvency.

I note that when Government spokesmen talk about solvency they say it is solvent at the moment. However, then they say there is a potential insolvency down the road, which is a very subjective way of discussing what is occurring. Presumably they reckon it will be bankrupt tomorrow, but it is not bankrupt today. An investigator could explain to us the assumptions on which judgments of that sort are made. It is disturbing and I do not blame people for making what the Taoiseach brands as irresponsible statements. However, it is disturbing when we are not told what is happening. It can only inflame the views of those who are accused of being irresponsible. I believe it is correct and if we are to have confidence in this bank we must be transparent and we must know the facts. At present we are fuelling suspicions by refusing to tell anyone anything about what is happening, by putting up people at the emergency general meeting of the bank to stonewall questions rather than reveal what is there, and to constantly put up the defence that there are commercial sensitivities. There can no longer be commercial sensitivities concerning Anglo Irish Bank. This is a basket case which no longer suffers from the normal rules of commerce. It is in the public interest to tell us what has happened and to do so quickly.