Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

What we have heard from the opposite side must be music to the ears of the banks and the failed bank regulator, the memory man who could not answer any questions. Why did the Government back them in the past month when we needed a banking inquiry? With Deputy Ciarán Lynch, the chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, who is held in great respect by all committee members, and other members such as Deputies Michael McGrath, Pearse Doherty, Stephen Donnelly and Kieran O'Donnell, the committee operates with a strong working relationship with the Minister, Deputy Noonan, and it could have done the job. The inquiry has been held up and brought into public ridicule by the type of speech we have just heard from Senator Bacik.

We are trying to deal with a national problem from 2008. I wish to draw attention to what the Chancellor, George Osborne, will state at the Mansion House tonight. He is calling for tougher laws against banks, including seven-year penalties and fines. The heading of the Chancellor's speech is that tougher penalties, including jail sentences of up to seven years, will be extended to parts of the financial services sector in the UK in an attempt to prevent more scandals.

The Government took its eye off the ball to have personal rows about Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. This is a much larger issue which has brought this country to its knees. The people opposite should address the real issue. It looks to me like the banks and the bank regulators who failed this country abysmally have been putting pressure on the Taoiseach. He has discredited the committee which could have done a splendid job for the country. It had splendid membership as it was. Those opposite have done the State no service by their conduct in the recent past.

The State has assembled a legal team to fight the Apple case with regard to the 12.5% corporate tax rate. I hope the emphasis will be on getting people to pay the 12.5% tax and not 2% as some are doing, and that we will tackle the tax lawyer and accountant industry in this country, the fiscal termites who have undermined the tax base of this country to the benefit of Starbucks and other companies which do not pay any taxes and which fail to discharge their duties to the wider society.

It is a major source of inequality growing in all the OECD countries that some companies have enough tax lawyers and tax accountants not to pay anything. We should bring companies up to the 12.5% rate, which is defended by every party in the House. It is a bargain for those who get it. Let us ensure they pay it.