Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I accept what the Minister of State said that the courts will determine this, which I think we all appreciate. However, I certainly have some sympathy with what Senator Barrett said. We have accounting firms, auditing firms, etc., which seemed to be part of the demise of the banking situation we had over those long and hard years, but nobody seems to have been brought to account. The same applies in other areas, even in the legal profession. People who signed off on various projects which were found to be less than desirable have got away scot-free. From that point of view, I sympathise with what Senator Barrett stated because the taxpayer cannot foot the bill on all occasions, which seems to be the situation currently. We should do anything we can do to tighten that situation.

Having professions, such as the legal profession, accountancy professions and others, policing themselves is just not acceptable anymore. It will have to be done independently in the future. We should examine ways to ensure that happens in many of the professions which police themselves currently.