Alex White (Labour)

I hope everybody's stay here will be just as short as Senator Mooney's. That was not a personal remark directed at him.

As regards the banks, Senators Fitzgerald and O'Toole are absolutely right. It is extraordinary that we are not discussing the issue today. I ask the Leader to address it directly. I suspect he will say there is an issue about the availability of Ministers. We respect that and understand the position. However, it is not necessary for the Minister for Finance or a Minister of State at the Department of Finance to be here for us to have a debate in the House. The proof is that each time we have discussed the banks, there has been a queue of Ministers in and out of the Seanad during the course of the debate. I believe I counted seven on one occasion. Therefore, it is not, in fact, necessary for a particular Minister to be here for us to have such a debate. I ask for it to take place today and respectfully second Senator Fitzgerald's motion to the Order of Business. We should debate the issue today because everybody else is talking about it.

The type of inquiry a committee of the Oireachtas may undertake is a live issue in the country. The Supreme Court decision in the Abbeylara case is in place, on which I have two brief points to make. First, there is the question of the restrictions on the Oireachtas in making findings of fact which could touch on the personal culpability of individuals. I understand clearly that there is such a caveat contained within that decision. Second, there is the issue as to whether the Oireachtas ever had lawful authority to carry out such inquiries. These issues are very much on the table.

My party brought forward legislation in the other House to deal with the second of these two issues, but it was rejected by the Government. On the first issue, I do not accept that it is not possible for a committee of the Oireachtas to hold a meaningful inquiry into what went wrong in the banking system-----