John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the risk of making the Chamber sound like a broken record, I mention issues relating to the banks and attempted to get the Order of Business amended. I am somewhat troubled by the fact that there are two wholly separate things that need to be investigated in the banks. There may or may not have been malfeasance and illegality on the part of bankers and the justice system should investigate that. That is important. Justice needs to be done and needs to be seen to be done. It will not fix the consequences of any actions that may or may not have occurred. The way in which those actions will be addressed will be by trying to restructure and renegotiate the debts we have.

At this point it is not clear to me that we have sufficiently investigated the actions of others and not just those who were working in the banks but those who were working in Government, the Central Bank and in the international agencies. Who knew what and when did they know it? Did any of the well-trained and incredibly experienced professionals in the European Central Bank have any idea of the scope of the debt of the Irish banks? Did they bring any pressure to bear on our Government to give the guarantee? Did they know more than our Government knew on the time? Were they holding back on information?

I do not know that this is the case, but it is a question which needs to be asked. It would certainly give us greatly enhanced moral authority in dealing with ongoing negotiations over things such as the retrospective capitalisation. It would also help to counter some of the incredibly adverse publicity we have had. If, hypothetically, it transpired that major shareholders of the European Central Bank were themselves going to be beneficiaries of the bank guarantee, a net transfer of assets and resources away from Irish people to German and other investors, that is something that needs to be known and widely promulgated. For that reason we should not shy away from having an Oireachtas inquiry. We can be very careful in an Oireachtas inquiry to ensure we do not act in any sense that would be prejudicial to any other criminal investigations which should occur wholly independently and in parallel. We are not really asking the same things. I am reiterating my call that we need an Oireachtas inquiry into the matter.

Regarding the Magdalen laundries redress scheme, while I may be misinformed, I am hearing that the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, is hoping that the religious orders will make a contribution.

This is as yet undecided. As I recall from the McAleese report, with no disrespect to our esteemed former colleague, the forensic accounting component was wholly deficient. Bland statements were made that the laundries operated at a subsistence, loss or small profit level. It appears the accounts which were examined were those supplied by the accountants acting for the laundries. It must be remembered these laundries provided a service to customers. These customers were often the same orders as those which ran the laundries, which ran other institutions which had contracts with the laundry. Were they charged the commercial rate? Were they, in fact, subsidising the activities of other profit centres in the congregations? These questions need to be teased out but have not been.

I echo the call made by my friend, Senator Higgins, for legislation which would make it a crime to mislead the Government. I will propose an amendment when it comes through that it would also be a crime for the Government to mislead the people.