Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Following on from the amendment I proposed to the Order of Business yesterday in respect of the cuts to disability services in the HSE north-east region, I gave the example of the €1 million cut to the funding of St. Michael's House which serves 1,500 children and young people with severe disabilities.

The Minister for Health has made no statement on this whatsoever. Respite care is cut and people are being sent home. No additional clients are being taken on by any of these services and the cut was announced in August, backdated to September. Will the Leader inquire of the Minister for Health whether he is due in the House in the next couple of weeks? Thereby I could raise these matters directly with him and he could make the first public comment on these cuts to services for children with severe physical disabilities on which he signed off. I would appreciate it if the Leader could inquire of the Minister's office whether he is due in the Seanad. If not, I intend to propose amendments to the Order of Business every day next week until he decides to grace us with his presence.

No. 2 on the Order of Business relates to the Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Act 2013 and will be taken without debate. I do not believe it is appropriate to allow it to go through without debate. A debate would afford an opportunity for people to ask questions of the Government with regard to the banking inquiry that was announced yesterday, an inquiry that I and my colleagues in Fianna Fáil very much welcome. However, we called for an independent inquiry. From what I understand from media reports, this inquiry will stop at the night of the guarantee, it will not deal predominantly with Anglo Irish Bank, it will not deal with contracts for difference and the Quinn shares in Anglo Irish Bank and it will not deal with the involvement of the European Central Bank and Mr. Trichet following the night of the guarantee. What is more, it will not deal with the Fine Gael-led Government's dealings with the ECB in 2011 or the strong-arm approach of the ECB towards the Government in respect of its plans to burn bank bondholders. If this is true it is very much Hamletwithout the prince.

The timing is relevant. How and when will the inquiry be established? How quickly will it run? What will be the composition of the committee? All these need to be discussed. The people want the truth, and rightly so. As a citizen, I want the truth as well. If we want a political witch trial, we can have that too. My party has said that we will co-operate fully and look forward to any inquiry the Government sets up. I put it to the Leader that it is imperfect, that most independent commentators have said that an independent inquiry along the lines of the Leveson inquiry that can be done quickly and that would have expertise available is preferable.

I have another question for the Leader. Will the current members of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, if that is where the inquiry is to sit, have the expertise to question Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland and others involved? Will they have the legal advice with regard to not straying into Anglo Irish Bank territory? If the Government really wanted the truth and if it cannot deal with Anglo Irish Bank, why does it not wait until those cases are discharged? It makes no sense. The inquiry will see AIB and Bank of Ireland coming in, stating they did not ask for a guarantee and dumping all over Anglo Irish Bank. The inquiry will have no interaction with the ECB and there will be no look at the 12 month review of the guarantee which, I believe, is particularly important. On that basis I am asking the Leader to permit a debate today on No. 2 in order that we can discuss these items. That would be the appropriate thing to do.