John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

If everybody knew these tapes exist why did it take five years? We heard statements from senior Government officials stating they did not even know the tapes existed. We need an inquiry. The reason for my typical quixotic tilting at windmills attempt to have a debate on the subject today is not because I am fixated on the punishment. People may have to be offered degrees of immunity from certain aspects of the consequences of prosecution to get to the bottom of the story.

There is a much more important thing we need to do. We need to work out how we can lessen the harm that has been occasioned by this. I am told by people who know much more about economics than I do, and basically we are a nation of expert economists at this stage, that we cannot actually get the money back. That said, are we in a position to use it as a moral negotiating tool when asking the ESM to look at the interest rate it is charging us, which is costing us millions per week, for the recapitalisation of our banks retrospectively. The question we must ask is-----