David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

----- water charges; and property tax. This is the suffering that has been inflicted on the people of the State by the Government. The Minister of State stated correctly that this suffering is being endured by people because of the banking crisis. However, the bankers have not suffered at all.

Let us remind ourselves what the previous Government and the current Government did to bail out the bankers. First, they set up NAMA and took all of the bad loans from the balance sheets of the bad banks which had operated disgracefully. We gave them well over the odds for the properties on which they had lent moneys recklessly. Therefore, they got away with that. They got more money and then paid ordinary citizens through the suffering imposed on them. We then took €60 billion of taxpayers' money and put it into the banks for their so-called "recapitalisation". What are we left with? We are left with 180,000 families in difficulty. That may not be anything to the Minister of State, but there are 180,000 families in mortgage distress. What has been done for them? Absolutely zilch. The bankers got €60 billion of our money, but the people got nothing in return.

The Government then turned €30 billion of taxpayer's money, in the form of a promissory note, into sovereign bonds and again placed it on the shoulders of the people of the State. Further dodgy banking debt - €30 billion - was put on the shoulders of the taxpayer.

The Minister of State went on to say the Irish nation had suffered the shame and indignity of having to be bailed out. The people were not bailed out by anybody. We had to borrow money from the troika; there was no free money given to us. The troika charged us interest on the money it lent to us; therefore, there was no free ticket for the people and we were not bailed out. The only people who were bailed out were the bankers, the speculators and the bondholders who got back every single cent they had invested. It is the people, as the Minister of State rightly said, who have suffered. While it is welcome that we are going to have a banking inquiry, let us at least face up to responsibility for what happened; let the Government face up to its responsibility. It, too, failed the people. It also put money into the banks, extended the bank guarantee and took taxpayer's money, borrowed money, as well as money that had been put away in the National Pensions Reserve Fund for a rainy day, and put it into the banks. The Minister of State might be dismissive and choose to sit with a bored expression on his face because he does not like hearing the truth, but that is the reality. The reality is that the suffering which he accepts has happened is having an unbearable impact on many families in the State. While it is welcome that the banking inquiry will examine the details of what happened, we recognise that it will not undo the damage done by this and the previous Government. All of the pain taken will not be undone by it. All of the money the Government put into the banks will not be undone through it. None of this will be undone. That will only happen if we get a deal at European Union level to retrospectively recapitalise the banks and let taxpayers get the money back and be relieved of the debt on their shoulders which should never have been put on them in the first place. The Minister of State has a brass neck in coming here to proclaim this as a triumph, something we should all celebrate and that will be meaningful to the people. At the end of the day, the only thing that will mean anything to them is if they get the money back that they put into the banks in the first place. Undoing the damage that the Minister of State's party, the Labour Party and Fianna Fáil did to the State is what we really need. We need a banking deal. While the banking inquiry is important in its own right, a banking deal is the big prize we should be pursuing.