David Norris (Independent)

I pay tribute to the action of the Leader of the House yesterday evening in removing the guillotine from a Bill on Committee Stage and agreeing to continue the discussion this evening. That was a good day for Seanad Éireann. I thank the Leader, on behalf of the Independents, and I am sure other Members will agree.

I compliment Senator Whelan on his sterling work on behalf of the community nursing unit in Abbeyleix. One of the people who is currently happily living there, Richard Phelan, is celebrating his 100th birthday, and Deputy John Paul Phelan, when he was in this House, stood alongside me in a similar situation regarding a nursing home in Carlow. Well done to the Phelans, who are one of the seven septs of Laois.

I request a debate on economic and financial matters, not just in this country but internationally. I am sure some of my colleagues saw the astonishing and very worrying programme on the BBC last night about the role of financial institutions in the United States in precipitating the appalling global financial crisis. I have been speaking out about this for a number of years. Implicated in this are large institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and, of course, our friends the ratings agencies, which were criminally complicit in helping to precipitate this difficulty. Bearing in mind the fact that 6 million people have already lost their homes in the US, and that there may be a further 9 million who are in danger of losing their homes - that is a total of 15 million people - it seems that it is getting close to a crime against humanity, because losing one's home seems to be a pretty dreadful prospect for any citizen. Yet nothing whatever has been done about the ratings agencies. They were at the root of this, yet they still appear to be ruling the roost and having an undue influence on the markets, to the detriment of ordinary people in this and other countries.

I would like the House to have an opportunity to consider this situation and see whether we in Ireland, as a member of the European Union, cannot make some concerted attempt to tame these organisations, because they are, after all, just issuing opinions. In the defences they gave, the various people who were filmed before committees of the United States Congress all said that they were not responsible because they merely gave opinions. Every single one of the leading people refused to be interviewed and, having not only destroyed their own companies but also had a deleterious effect on the world economy, some of them walked away with compensation of up to $400 million. I simply do not think that is acceptable. I would like to have, if we can, a wide-ranging debate on economic matters.