Ciarán Cannon (Progressive Democrats)

There is a certain sense of déjÀ vu in that a number of weeks ago we sat into the early hours of the morning to deal with legislation regarding the bank guarantee scheme. We now find ourselves once again trying to work ourselves out of a difficult situation. I am, as I was then, confident that the Minister is acting solely and utterly in the interests of the Irish people. I do not accept for one moment that a well connected group of people has somehow swayed their way in this matter. The work being done here tonight is in the interests of the Irish people.

We have arrived at an unprecedented time in our country's history. There is potential for our banking system, the apparatus that brings lifeblood to thousands of small Irish businesses, to irreparably break down. We have arrived at this point because of highly irresponsible and incompetent management at the very highest echelons of that system. We must question the performance of the apparatus of State that is responsible for regulatory control of that system. We must seriously question the performance of auditors who let down shareholders by somehow missing the movement of very significant amounts of money through the books of one bank. The auditors who examined the books of Anglo Irish Bank over the past eight years earned in the region of €6 million for that work. They were required, as is the case with all auditors, including those who sign-off on my own company's accounts, to state that the accounts gave a true and fair view of the company's financial position. Yet, almost inexplicably, they managed to miss large sums of money, estimated to be in the region of €100 million, that silently moved in and out through balance sheets. Having far from an indepth knowledge of our banking system — I am sure we have all learned a great deal during the past couple of weeks — I often wondered about the relevancy of Anglo Irish Bank to the normal hard working people or thousands of small business owners throughout the country.

In 2007, David McWilliams in his book The Generation Game described Anglo Irish Bank as "simply a leveraged hedge fund betting its own and its clients' money on overvalued property". He went on to say that normally when the property market collapses these type of outfits go bust. Irrespective of Sean Fitzpatrick's troublesome loans, this was an entity that was always going to be in trouble even if our property market plateaued out. This was a bank created for a small elite section of Irish society who moved in the same lofty circles. It galls me that thousands of Irish taxpayers now have to bail it out. Also, it saddens me that investments by hundreds of ordinary people through the purchase of shares in Anglo Irish Bank, many of which were considered safe retirement funds, lie in tatters at their feet.

It now seems apparent that we are left with no choice but to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank. The very trustworthiness of our banking system is at risk and this nationalisation will serve to restore stability. However, there are serious lessons to be learned from this fiasco and one hopes the speed with which this legislation was produced will be matched by similar expediency in addressing these lessons. We need a financial regulator with real teeth, one who has no hesitancy in using them. That person needs to be drawn from ranks other than those of the banking sector in order that the safety of the cosy cabal is no longer a refuge for wrongdoers. We urgently need to change our legislation so that the kind of loan activity engaged in by directors at Anglo Irish Bank becomes illegal and is given the description it really deserves, namely, fraud. Without all of this legislation in place, Ireland could once again be labelled, as it was three years ago by The New York Times, the wild west of European finance.

Today in the Mansion House we celebrated 90 years of precious democracy. Despite huge difficulty, our forefathers risked much to set our country on a new road to freedom and independence. They faced up courageously to adversity and negativity. It is now incumbent upon all of us to face our current adversity with similar courage and positivity. As Senator MacSharry said earlier, the world has not come to an end and is not coming to an end. We can overcome our problems. Ireland incorporated can once again be the powerful economic force it was only a very short time ago and major reform of our banking structures can be the first step on that road to recovery.