Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is still a legacy debt issue to be addressed, but I have every confidence, as do most Members of the House, in the Minister for Finance and his Government colleagues who are working to reduce our indebtedness. The game is by not over by a long shot, but what we are here to discuss is the establishment of the banking inquiry which will examine how the country got into such an awful mess. Its aim is to find out how the political, regulatory and banking systems broke down to such an extent that the country was left on its knees. Lives have been destroyed; homes have been repossessed; businesses have been lost, and the people are entitled to know how the system imploded to such an extent.

Senator John Crown hit the nail on the head when he spoke about bank managers and officials being paid to sell money to people who were not in a position to repay it. That is a significant element of the difficulties encountered. Those of us who are older remember dealing with bank managers many years ago to negotiate a mortgage on a house. We knew that if we did not have 20% of the price of the house as a deposit, we would not get a mortgage. We also knew that we would not be able to borrow more than 2.5 times our household income. We criticised bank managers in those days for being too tough, but that was how the banking system should have been run. That is not what happened and we need to get all of the details of what went wrong on the fateful night the bank guarantee was given and in the period leading up to it. I have no doubt the Members of the Oireachtas who will sit on the committee of inquiry will do a fine job in an impartial and non-partisan manner. That is what they were elected to do. They were elected to serve the people and get answers for them.

We would have liked the inquiry to have been established much sooner, but the people, in their wisdom, decided not to give Oireachtas Members the authority to do so when the question was put to them in a referendum. We are now heading towards a situation where we will get answers. I hope we will also put in place structures for the future to ensure the debacle we have seen in the past seven or eight years will not be repeated and that the people will never again have to go through the hardship they are now experiencing. It is encouraging that, at last, after two and a half years of tough decisions but good and honest governance, we are beginning to see the economy turn around. Over 60,000 jobs have been created in the past year, or rather the Government has created the climate to allow these jobs to be created. We are beginning to see confidence return.

I know that the Minister of State will take back the message from the Seanad that we all want to see the Minister for Finance achieve a deal on some of the legacy debt which would ease the pressure further. We must acknowledge the significant reductions in debt levels already achieved by the Government in its two and half years in office. The deal on the promissory notes and other aspects of our lending must also be acknowledged.

In commending the motion to the House I have no doubt that the Members we will entrust with responsibility for conducting the inquiry will serve the people well and will deliver their report in a timely fashion. We do not want to see an inquiry dragging on for too long and wish the participants well. The Members who have been selected from the Dáil are all extremely competent, conscientious and hardworking and I have every confidence that the two Members who will be selected from this House will also make a fine contribution to the long-overdue and badly needed banking inquiry.