Seanad debates

Thursday, 23 January 2014

10:40 am

Photo of Marc MacSharryMarc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree wholeheartedly with what Senator Barrett said about the banking inquiry. It seems foolish in the extreme that we cannot have the appropriate people on these committees. I would say that legal advice is coming from one of those big firms - we all know their names - between the two canals here in Dublin. They were responsible for all the legal advice that got us into the crisis and it now seems they will be responsible for all the legal advice on examining their own poor legal advice back in the day.

While we all welcome a banking inquiry and look forward to the public getting answers for the questions which they deserve, apart at all from the Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas who will make up the committee I have a concern over whom they will be allowed to question. For example, it has been suggested that we will not be allowed to examine people from IBRC, the former Anglo Irish Bank, or any matters that may be before the courts. If that is the case, whom will we question? What will we find out? I do not want to be part of a superficial inquiry that examines nothing, concludes nothing, costs a lot of money and supplies easy copy for lazy journalists. I ask the Leader to take that on board when talking to the Government Chief Whip.

I wish to raise a matter that this House and the other House are sick of raising, which is the matter of mortgage arrears. Regardless of how often we put forward the facts and regardless of how often we warned in advance of the crisis what would happen, it has all been ignored. It has now been reported that more than half of the people who borrowed from the four or five lenders in the sub-prime sector are in arrears. According to the ESRI these are the people most impacted by the recession. We are talking about the lower working-class community who had struggled with financial issues in the past and had managed to secure mortgages from sub-prime lenders. Now those sub-prime lenders are not affording the full suite of solutions to those borrowers. I am acting directly as a go-between on behalf of some people who are threatened with the loss of their homes.

The Government stands idly by while nothing is being done. As has been said previously here and in the other House, the fox maintains control of the henhouse and the people suffer. While we all celebrate the relatively good news from Europe and the ESRI, along with party leaders' national addresses, the reality on the ground is that nothing is being done for the people. I implore the Leader to raise this issue with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and ask him to come forward with tangible measures to put the people in charge of the henhouse and not the foxes.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.