Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support what Senator Darragh O'Brien said about the anniversary of the murder of Garda Adrian Donohoe. I extend our sympathies to the people of Lordship and Ballymascanlon and to the Garda and hope people will come forward to the Garda and the PSNI, because it is a joint investigation, to bring the perpetrators to justice.

I wish to express concern over the banking inquiry. As reported by Stephen Collins yesterday it is understood that one of the key elements of the Standing Orders will be that no member of the committee should have made any public comment about the banking crisis that could be regarded as biased. Is it a requirement that all Members of the Oireachtas should have been dumb when €64 billion walked out of the country's Exchequer? Would we require that somebody investigating the Great Depression in the United States should not have even known it happened? People have read dozens of books and thousands of articles about this affair. It would be a bad sign if people who had said nothing about the banking crisis were put on the committee. I do not know what the legal advice has in mind - perhaps senator Robinson Crusoe and deputy Man Friday on some desert island who, coming to the topic of the collapse of the Irish economy without knowing anything about it, would be suitable to serve on the committee.

This is on legal advice. There were many lawyers in Government Buildings on the night the €64 billion walked out the door and they should be questioned. There were no Senators, Deputies or economists there as far as I know. If there are objections by the banks, their accountants and bank regulators, let them do it openly as lawyers do in court when they can object to members of the jury. Doing it behind the scenes to try to reduce the level of expertise available to the committee is not appropriate. We have seen the fine work of Deputies Ciaran Lynch and McGuinness on these committees. It should not be restrained by this legal advice, given that the legal advice got us into this trouble in the first instance.