Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I welcome the setting up of the banking inquiry. Everyone has talked about the pain and suffering people went through. I recall in particular the shock, confusion and horror as the whole banking crisis unfolded. Let those of us sitting in the House cast our minds back to those months and the constant stream of news on the radio and the paralysis of everything as we sought to try to understand what had happened. There were no answers. Instead, there were simply more questions and more confusion while, rapidly, we saw the country appear to go down the proverbial. It was a difficult time and it has been followed by people's lives being, in some cases, destroyed permanently and, in many cases, scarred completely. My colleague, Senator Cummins, referred to people leaving the country, losing their jobs, losing their houses and losing their lives. This is not any old political story today. It has a real resonance for many people in the country.

It will be difficult to make any inquiry perfect. I am shocked at Senator Ó Domhnaill's remarks about a half-hearted way of conducting an inquiry. How dare he, as a public representative, cast aspersions on the fellow public representatives who will, I have no doubt, do their level best as public representatives to inquire into this matter? This is not an inquiry run by experts. That is not what it is setting out to do. It is about public representatives inquiring on behalf of the public. As a public representative himself, Deputy Ó Domhnaill should know that.