Dan Boyle (Green Party)

All Members would agree there needs to be effective mechanisms to control the scale and type of payments being received by bankers and that there exists a culture and a questionable sense of ethics within financial service institutions which needs radical change. This is not unique to this country. The British Government had similar experiences with the chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland which is 70% owned by the British Government. President Obama, having set the limit of $500,000 for salaries, had to row back quickly on that decision. It is not so much the ability of governments or the introduction of legislation but rather a case of having effective mechanisms to achieve control. Everyone in public life wants this to happen because there is an arrogance, a sense of hubris, among financiers that needs to be challenged if we are to move on from any of these practices. Senator O'Toole referred to Goldman Sachs in which the average salary is $500,000. The chief executive of one of the rescued banks in this country is being given a pension top-up when the pension fund for that organisation is €1.6 billion in deficit. Those dubious ethics cannot exist in a society trying to come to grips with a new and a fair economy. While I accept that not enough is being done, I also suggest we debate how collectively to find those effective mechanisms. The entire political system and society need to challenge the sense of superiority - being above, so to speak - these people seem to have whereby they can operate within their own moral vacuum. Unless we have such a debate and make those challenges, information such as this will appear regularly.

I agree with Senator Bacik that not only are we receiving information every day about these questionable practices, we will continue to receive it and worse until everything is out in the open. I look forward to a successful tribunal of inquiry and the active involvement of both Houses of the Oireachtas in ensuring that information is made public as quickly as possible. Both the Houses of the Oireachtas and society need to have such a debate.