John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

We were all disgusted and flabbergasted by the revelations of what went on within Anglo Irish Bank. To a certain degree, I have sympathy for the previous Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, who was an honourable man, but it is clear that he and the Central Bank were being manipulated by the bankers. In light of all of that, and with the benefit of hindsight, we enacted into law a Personal Insolvency Bill which gives the banks a veto over the proposals and recommendations of a personal insolvency practitioner. Before it is operational and, therefore, too late, we should revisit the Bill. My gut instinct tells me that if we had been privy to what we have been privy in the past two days, we would not have voted to give the bankers that veto. I propose that we discuss this issue with the Minister for Finance and suggest that we introduce a further Bill that would propose to take away the veto we gave to those bankers before it is too late. That is very important and must be dealt with immediately.